Corridors to Extinction and the Australian Megafauna.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Webb, S. G. (Steve G.), 1956-

Contributor:

ScienceDirect (Online service)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Extinction (Biology)--Australia.

Extinction (Biology).

Extinct animals--Australia.

Extinct animals.

Extinction, Biological.

Australia.

Medical Subjects:

Extinction, Biological.

Australia.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Place of Publication:

Burlington : Elsevier Science, 2013.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Extinctions have always occurred and always will, so what is so surprising about the megafauna extinctions? They were caused by humans and were the first of many extinctions that eventually led to the extinction of the Moa, Steller's Sea Cow, the Dodo, Great Auk and countless other species great and small, all attributed to human agency. Therefore, the megafauna were humans' first great impact on the planet. There is now an increasing realization that the 'blitzkrieg' view of these extinctions may have been wrong. A growing body of evidence and long-term field work is beginning to show that at least Australias megafauna did not succumb to human agency, not because humans probably did not hunt the odd animal but because the an infinitely more logical reason lies in the climatic conditions of the Quaternary Ice Ages and the affect they had on continental geography, environment, climate and, most importantly, the biogeography of the megafauna. This book presents the evidence of this theory, demonstrating the biogeographic approach to Australia's megafauna extinction.

Contents:

Front Cover; Corridors to Extinction and the Australian Megafauna; Copyright Page; Contents; A Prologue to Extinction; List of Figures & Tables; Acknowledgements; 1 The Big Five or Six or More ... ; Introduction; What Has Extinction Ever Done for Us?; Background Extinction; Mass Extinction; The Big Five, Six, etc.; Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian and Ordovician Extinctions; Devonian Extinctions; Permian Extinctions; Late-Triassic and Triassic-Jurassic Extinctions; End-Cretaceous (K-T) Extinction; Why Do Animals Go Extinct?; Well, What Did Extinction Do for Us?; 2 Extinction Drivers.

Main Extinction DriversAstronomical Drivers; Tectonic, Volcanic and Oceanic Drivers; Climatic and Environmental Drivers; Biogeographic Extinction Drivers; 3 After the Dinosaurs; Starting Again; Palaeogene Extinctions; Tertiary Geography; Animals of the Palaeogene World; Eocene-Oligocene Boundary: the End of an 'Era'; The Isolated Continents; The Neogene Extinctions; Miocene Environmental Switching and Extinction; Pliocene Extinctions; Where to Now?; 4 Australia: From Dreamtime to Desert; Australia: A Palaeohistoric Glimpse; An Introduction to Ice Ages and Deserts.

5 The Australian Tertiary and the First Marsupial ExtinctionsIntroduction; Marsupials Go to Australia; Australia's Earliest Mammals; Australia's Faunal Dark Ages: 55-25 Ma; They Are Still There!; Australia's Miocene, a Window to the Future; But What About the Others?; The Origin of the Megafauna; Diprotodontids; Macropods; Setting the Stage for the Quaternary; 6 Australia and the Quaternary Ice Ages; Drilling for the Foundations; Bygone Bubbles; Ice-Core Data, Glacial Cycle Structure and Climate Switches; A Devil in the Detail: Elements of Glacial-Interglacial Cycling.

MIS 19, Interglacial (772-789 ka): Appendix 2, Graph AMIS 18, Glacial (713-772 ka): Appendix 2, Graph A; MIS 17, Interglacial (689-713 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs A and B; MIS 16, Glacial (625-689 ka): Appendix 2, Graph B; MIS 15, Interglacial (560-625 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs B and C; MIS 14, Glacial (500-560 ka): Appendix 2, Graph C; MIS 13, Interglacial (483-500 ka): Appendix 2, Graph D; MIS 12, Glacial (429-483 ka): Appendix 2, Graph D; MIS 11, Interglacial (393-429 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs D and E; MIS 10, Glacial (336-393 ka): Appendix 2, Graph E.

MIS 9, Interglacial (312-335 ka): Appendix 2, Graph EMIS 8, Glacial (245-312 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs E and F; MIS 7, Interglacial (196-245 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs F and G; MIS 6, Glacial (133-196 ka): Appendix 2, Graph G; MIS 5, Interglacial (80-133 ka): Appendix 2, Graphs G and H; 7 Who and Where: Australian Megafauna and Their Distribution; Australian Megafauna: How Many Species?; The Megafauna; Reptiles; Genyornis; Diprotodontids; Rare or Common?; Kangaroos; Australian Megafauna: Where Did They Live?; Southern and Southeastern Australia; Southern Lake Eyre Basin; Southwestern Australia; Northwestern Australia.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Webb, Steve. Corridors to Extinction and the Australian Megafauna.

ISBN:

9780124078406

0124078400

9780124077904

0124077900

OCLC:

830160838

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.