Wildlife of Gondwana: Dinosaurs and Other Vertebrates from the Ancient Supercontinent (Life of the Past)

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Product Description

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, sometimes separated, many partners; twice such a union created the landmass of Gondwana. This great southern supercontinent once was home to an unusual array of wildlife. From small jawless fishes and primitive amphibians to dinosaurs, giant lizards, and large flightless birds, the vertebrates of Gondwana have given rise to the unique biotas of Australia and South America today. The fragmentary fossil remains from this great continent now lie scattered across southern Africa, India, Australia, Antarctica, and South America. The careful reconstruction of life on this ancient continent has occupied scientists for more than a century, though it has only been during the past three decades that the details of how that supercontinent was born, when it existed, and how it died have fully come to light. Nor has the story of the animals and plants that once lived there been adequately reconstructed until recently. This book traces a major part of that story, 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 fish to advanced mammals and birds. It explains, in detail, how the vertebrate faunas of each of the Gondwana continents developed to the present day, investigating how the shifting continental plates and changing climate have shaped the path of vertebrate evolution. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of colour photographs, drawings, and paintings, "Wildlife of Gondwana" is a major reference to life of the past. Originally published in Australia in 1993, this corrected and augmented edition contains new material on fossil discoveries in India. The index of genera and the bibliography have also been revised and updated.

Amazon.com Review

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