Dinosaurs in Australia. Mesozoic Life from the Southern Continent

Abstract

Here is a publication which will appeal to the amateur and the specialist alike. The main title and cover illustration will draw the attention of the general reader, whilst the subtitle tells of its scope and content. Dinosaurs in fact are only a small part of the extensive Australian fossil record. Whilst there is what the specialist needs in terms of detail and a quite extensive bibliography, the general reader is taken step by step through the aspects of Mesozoic life, with each new term explained as it is met. The introductory chapter sets the scene with accounts of types of fossil formation and their dating, with maps of Gondwanaland and modern plate boundaries. Then the Mesozoic itself is described in some detail, with the three systems broken down through series into the thirty component stages. Chapters deal with Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous assemblages of plants and animals, each with very different climatic conditions. There are extensive coloured illustrations of the various forms of fossils, as well as 12 reconstructions of some of the more spectacular animals, mostly reptiles. That on the cover is of an unnamed theropod dinosaur. Much of the fossil record is aquatic, particularly in the Cretaceous. Australian dinosaur fossils are relatively rare in comparison to their abundance in Asia and the Americas. For instance, the only definitive Triassic evidence of the group comes from footprints. By the Cretaceous, bone fossils are quite abundant but fragmentary. As well as true dinosaurs, Plesiosaurs and Pterosaurs are represented.