From the late Paleozoic era to the early Mesozoic era, 350 million to 140 million years before the present, the latter-day continents and subcontinents of Antarctica, India, Australia, Africa, and South America formed a single landmass, a southerly "supercontinent" that contemporary scientists call Gondwana. The physicist Alfred Wegener posited the existence of Gondwana as early as 1912, but only in the 1960s was his theory of continental drift widely accepted. Since that time, considerable evidence has been gathered about Gondwana's ancient flora and fauna, much of it from Australia, which the authors of this handsomely illustrated volume deem a kind of "Noah's ark" of species found almost nowhere else. Some of those animal types, such as the allosaurid dinosaurs and the labyrinthodont amphibians, may have endured on Gondwana long after they went extinct on its northern-hemisphere counterpart; others, such as the placental mammals and certapsian dinosaurs, may have developed on Gondwana. First published in 1992, this book offers a useful introduction to plate tectonics and other tenets of modern geology, as well as a fine catalog of long-extinct creatures such as the sauropod, pterosaur, and iguanodont. The revised edition recounts recent discoveries from southern Africa, India, and Patagonia that augment the fossil record and correct earlier classification schemes. --Gregory McNamee
Gondwana (also known as Gondwanaland) is the supercontinent that existed (primarily) in the southern hemisphere from about 350 to 150 million years ago, composed of what is now Australia and much of Africa, India, and South America. This oversized work examines Gondwana's geologic history and the fossilized evidence of its diverse life forms (with an emphasis on vertebrates) in light of recent discoveries. Background information on the history of scientific investigation of the supercontinent, geology and geologic time, problems of the fossil record, and the history of life make this work accessible to a wide audience. This new edition (1st, 1993) adds 15 pages of new discoveries, as well as correcting typographical errors and revising the systematic, geographic, and geologic index. This is a treasure trove of photographs, maps, charts, time lines, and drawings, as well as a source of concise but detailed scientific information. Written by a group of Australians, including paleontologists and photographers, it is an ideal beginning place for research on the subject. An extensive bibliography enhances its use as a reference source. Recommended for all libraries. General readers; undergraduates through faculty.J. Nabe, SUNY at Stony Brook, Choice, July 2000
(J. Nabe, SUNY at Stony Brook Choice 2000-01-00) Review
Gondwana (also known as Gondwanaland) is the supercontinent that existed (primarily) in the southern hemisphere from about 350 to 150 million years ago, composed of what is now Australia and much of Africa, India, and South America. This oversized work examines Gondwana's geologic history and the fossilized evidence of its diverse life forms (with an emphasis on vertebrates) in light of recent discoveries. Background information on the history of scientific investigation of the supercontinent, geology and geologic time, problems of the fossil record, and the history of life make this work accessible to a wide audience. This new edition (1st, 1993) adds 15 pages of new discoveries, as well as correcting typographical errors and revising the systematic, geographic, and geologic index. This is a treasure trove of photographs, maps, charts, time lines, and drawings, as well as a source of concise but detailed scientific information. Written by a group of Australians, including paleontologists and photographers, it is an ideal beginning place for research on the subject. An extensive bibliography enhances its use as a reference source. Recommended for all libraries. General readers; undergraduates through faculty.J. Nabe, SUNY at Stony Brook, Choice, July 2000
From the Back Cover
""Today the six major continents are separated by vast seas, but it has not always been so. The relentless motion of the earth's crust sometimes joined and sometimes separated disparate landmasses; twice such a union created the landmass of Gondwana. This great southern supercontinent once was home to an unusual array of wildlife.""--BOOK JACKET. ""This book traces the history of the vertebrate faunas of Gondwana. It begins with the origin of life, before Gondwana coalesced, and follows the evolution of vertebrates from invertebrate stock, through the course of life from primitive fishes to advanced mammals and birds. It explains in detail how the vertebrate faunas of each of the Gondwana continents developed to the present day, and it investigates how the shifting continental plates and changing climates have shaped the path of vertebrate evolution.""--BOOK JACKET.
About the Author
Patricia Vickers-Rich holds a Chair in Palaeontology at Monash University, where she lectures in the Earth Sciences Department. She holds a Ph.D. from Columba University for work on the origin and evolution of the Australasian avifauna. Her main research interests are in Late Mesozoic vertebrates from Gondwana. She is currently Director of the Monash Science Centre, a science communication centre which she founded at Monash University
Thomas Hewitt Rich is Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at Museum Victoria (formerly the Museum of Victoria) in Melbourne. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University for work on fossil hedgehogs of the Northern Hemisphere. His primary research interests lie in Mesozoic faunas, especially dinosaurs and primitive mammals. His main efforts over the past then years have been in elucidating the Early Cretaceous vertebrate faunas of Australia's Southeast and of Patagonia in Argentina.
Francesco Coffa is a freelance photographer based in Melbourne. Born in Italy, he came to Australia at the age of ten, and later graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He began his photographic career in 1962 and has illustrated and contributed to many books and scientific papers. He has also produced videos, short films, and audio-visuals on diverse subjects such as dinosuars, Egyptology, Aboriginal culture, and the environment. Until 1997, Coffa was the manager of photographic and audio-visual services at Museum Victoria.
Steven Morton is the head of scientific photographic services for the Faculty of Science, Monash University. He is a graduate of the Photographic Department at the Royal Melbroune Institute of Technology and holds a Master's of Applied Science in Photography. Morton developed a 360Ý panoramic camera of unique design. One of his first panormas taken with this camera appears in this volume along with many other of his photographs. His lab at Monash has now migrated into computer graphics that enhance his conventional photography some of those new applications have been used in this revised edition of Wildlife of Gondwana.
Peter Trusler is a Melbourne artist who has received international acclaim for his natural history paintings. He created the 1993 Austrailia Post dinosaur stamps, the second largest issue in the history of Austrailian stamps He is a science graduate of Monash University and has contributed illustrations to many scientfic and popular publications. The blending of his biological and artistic interests has proven particularly successful in presenting informative reconstructions of the past, and he is working currently with Tom and Pat Rich on a number of prehisoric projects.
