The final inverse model of each sample can be found below. Final models were run with all data available for the sample, as indicated in each figure. Black line represents the expected model, that is, a weighted mean model, where the weighting is provided by the posterior probability for each model. The expected model is the one displayed in figures 6 and 7 of the paper. Confidence intervals represent a 95% probability range. Black dots placed according the AFT central age of the sample. For further information see Gallagher (2009Gallagher ( , 2012 and QTQt User Guide v5.7.

Carbonate U-Pb dating of samples from rift-bounding faults of intracontinental basins in the Borborema province, northeastern Brazil, indicate recurrent tectonic activity during Pangea breakup lasting for >150 m.y. from the Late Triassic to the Paleocene, reactivating inherited strike-slip Neoproterozoic–Cambrian shear zones. Triassic ages indicate that brittle deformation started some 80 m.y. before previously known, most likely related to rifting along the incipient Central Atlantic. The subsequent Cretaceous opening of the South Atlantic caused renewed fault activity during rifting and basin development. Furthermore, recurrent Cenozoic tectonic activity along the rift-bounding faults is indicated, suggesting that structural inheritance of the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian continental-scale Borborema shear zone system has been responsible for accommodation of recurrent tectonic stress from Mesozoic rifting to the present day.

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The geodynamic forces acting during Jurassic-Cretaceous South Atlantic rifting provoked intense transformations in West Gondwana, such as the reactivation of ancient basement structures, broad magmatism and general uplift of the new continental margins.Low-temperature thermochronology records cooling associated with exhumation syn-and post-breakup along the Brazilian margin, while further south, in Uruguay, mostly pre-breakup uplift is identified. Thermochronometry data are scarce in Uruguay, but previous studies suggest that basement cooling and exhumation preceded West Gondwana breakup by hundreds of millions of years. To improve our knowledge of the evolution of rifting, we present 19 apatite fission-track ages in this study, 42 apatite and 40 zircon (U-Th)/He single crystal ages for the Uruguayan shield (UYS), from which we modeled 19 inverse thermal histories. Our results suggest that the UYS temperatures were below 200 °C since the early Paleozoic, and that cooling below 110 °C started during the Carboniferous, with continuous *Manuscript (with LINE NUMBERS) 2 exhumation of the basement until Early Cretaceous. The onset of this long-term uplift is correlated with orogenesis and terrane accretions in the SW margin of West Gondwana during the Paleozoic. Lithosphere thinning and uplift preceding breakup contributed to the continuous Late Paleozoic to middle Mesozoic exhumation, until the voluminous volcanism of the Paraná-Etendeka Large Igneous Province (c. 133 Ma). This magmatic event, combined with the thermal influence of the Tristão da Cunha mantle plume and rift spreading, likely raised the basement geotherm during the Late Cretaceous. Models suggest a slight increase in temperatures of the UYS from Late Cretaceous until the Oligocene, when a final cooling to surface temperatures took place. Our findings corroborate a long and complex thermal history for Uruguay, with crustal uplift occurring essentially before West Gondwana breakup.

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