Research Catalog

Title

Australia's lost world : prehistoric animals of Riversleigh / Michael Archer, Suzanne J. Hand, Henk Godthelp.

Author

Archer, Michael, 1945-

Publication

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, [2000]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Godthelp, Henk.
• Hand, Suzanne.

Description

264 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps; 29 cm.

Summary

"200 kilometers north-west of Mount Isa, Queensland, lies one of the most significant fossil deposits in the world - Riversleigh. Here, the remains of many thousands of weird and wonderful prehistoric animals have been superbly preserved in the limestone outcrops. There are marsupial lions, carnivorous kangaroos, 7-metre long pythons, primitive platypuses and early ancestors of the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. So important is this site to our understanding of what has happened to Australia and its living cargo over the last 25 million years that, in 1994, Riversleigh was inscribed on the World Heritage List." "Michael Archer, Suzanne Hand and Henk Godthelp, the principal scientists on this remarkable excavation since 1976, explain in Australia's lost world the vast environmental and geographic changes that have occurred in this area since Australia broke away from the continent of Gondwana, and how the animals on board this raft evolved through the ages. As photographs and evocative artwork bring to life the teeming tropical world that once populated the now arid lands of Riversleigh, the authors discuss some of the unusual techniques used on a dig, how to recognise fossils, how to date them and how to reconstruct from them."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

[Life of the past]

Uniform Title

• Life of the past.
• Riversleigh

Alternative Title

Riversleigh

Subject

• Animals, Fossil > Riversleigh Station Region (Qld.)
• Fossils, Animal > Riversleigh Station Region (Qld.)
• Geology > Riversleigh Station Region (Qld.)

Note

• Originally published: Riversleigh. Australia : New Holland Publishers, 1991.
• Series statement on jacket.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-261) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Riversleigh: A search for beginnings -- Extraordinary discoveries : A history of understanding -- Passage to immortality Four serendipitous ways to turn a stone -- Riversleigh's prehistoric menagerie : A rogue's gallerie -- Why Riversleigh is significant : Ten good reasons -- The Australian fossil record : A broader view -- Backdrop to the Riversleigh story : Drift, climates and environmental change -- Stones, bones and catacombs : Understanding the layers of the landscape -- Riversleigh's prehistoric environments -- Excavation and collection in the field -- Techniques of laboratory preparation -- Returning the breath to the beast : Reconstructing ancient cultures and their environments -- How we date Riversleigh's creatures -- The power of Palaeontology.

ISBN

0253339146

LCCN

^^^00059788^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library