Wildlife of Gondwana

by Vickers-Rich, Patricia

• ISBN13: 9780253336439
• ISBN10: 0253336430
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

"This is a treasure trove... Recommended for all libraries." -- ChoiceBefore the six major continents were separated by vast seas, there existed the landmass of Gondwana (now Australia, South America, Antarctica, India, Africa, and New Zealand). This book presents the history of the vertebrate faunas of Gondwana, beginning with the origin of life, even before Gondwana coalesced, and moving through time as the continent shifted, along with its vertebrate life. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of color 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.

Author Biography

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 360+¥ 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction	13	(1)
Introduction to The Revised Edition	14	(1)
PART ONE GONDWANA IN PERSPECTIVE	15	(32)
PART TWO THE SEARCH FOR BEGINNINGS	47	(14)
PART THREE THE FOSSIL VERTEBRATES OF AUSTRALIA	61	(166)
And Then There Were Bones	62	(6)
An Age Of Fishes	68	(31)
Attack On The Land	99	(24)
Dinosaurs And Polar Nights	123	(26)
An Ark To The Tropics	149	(64)
The Living Vertebrates Of Australia	213	(14)
PART FOUR GONDWANAN FAUNAS IN GLOBAL CONTEXT	227	(26)
Afterword	253	(16)
Acknowledgements	269	(2)
Glossary	271	(6)
Systematic, Geographic And Geologic Index	277	(8)
Bibliography	285	(12)
Index	297