Title: History of the Australian vegetation : Cretaceous to recent /
Authors: Hill, Robert S.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press,
Year: 1994
Subjects: Paleobotany Australia.; Plants Evolution
Abstract: "The Australian vegetation is the end result of a remarkable history of climate change, latitudinal change, continental isolation, soil evolution, interaction with an evolving fauna, fire and human impact. This book presents a detailed synopsis of the critical events which led to the evolution of the unique Australian flora and the wide variety of vegetation types contained within it. The first part of the book details the past continental relationships of Australia, its palaeoclimate, fauna, and the evolution of its landforms since the rise to dominance of the angiosperms at the beginning of the Cretaceous period. A detailed summary of the palaeobotanical record is then presented. The palynological record gives an overview of the vegetation, and the distribution of important taxa within it, while the macrofossil record is used to trace the evolution of critical taxa."--Publisher's website.
Contents: The Australian fossil plant record : an introduction / R.S. Hill -- Maps of late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Gondwana break-up : some palaeogeographical implications / G.E. Wilford and P.J. Brown -- The background : 144 million years of Australian palaeoclimate and palaeogeography / P.G. Quilty -- Palaeobotanical evidence for Tertiary climates / D.R. Greenwood -- Landscapes of Australia : their nature and evolution / G. Taylor -- Patterns in the history of Australia's mammals and inferences about palaeohabitats / M. Archer, S.J. Hand & H. Godthelp -- Australian Tertiary phytogeography : evidence from palynology / H.A. Martin -- Cretaceous vegetation : the microfossil record / M.E. Dettmann -- Cretaceous vegetation : the macrofossil record / J.G. Douglas -- Early Tertiary vegetation : evidence from spores and pollen / M.K. Macphail ... [et al.] -- The early Tertiary macrofloras of continental Australia / D.C. Christophel -- Cenozoic vegetation in Tasmania : macrofossil evidence / R.J. Carpenter, R.S. Hill & G.J. Jordan -- The Neogene : a period of transition / A.P. Kershaw, H.A. Martin & J.R.C. McEwen Mason