In the Early Palaeozoic the Kazakh terranes were widely distributed north or northeast of the Mangyshlak, Karakum, Karakorum and Tarim terranes.[3] The location, origin, and faunal affinities of these terranes has, however, been the subject of two competing hypotheses: one described these terranes as an enormous island arc called the Kipchak arc, the other as a series of more or less parallel belts. Faunal analyses indicate that some of the terranes probably originated in Gondwana rather than Baltica or Siberia.[4] A 2006 analysis of brachiopods indicated that the Chu-Ili Mountains must have formed an independent, Peri-Gondwanan terrane in the Late Ordovician located not far from the North and South China cratons.[5]