Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Testing hypotheses about biological invasions and Charles Darwin’s two-creators rumination
- Part I Ancient invaders
- 2 Australia’s Acacia: unrecognised convergent evolution
- 3 The mixed success of Mimosoideae clades invading into Australia
- 4 Perspectives from parrots on biological invasions
- 5 Invasion ecology of honeyeaters
- 6 The invasion of terrestrial fauna into marine habitat: birds in mangroves
- 7 The biological invasion of Sirenia into Australasia
- 8 Flying foxes and drifting continents
- 9 Invasion ecology of Australasian marsupials
- 10 Murine rodents: late but highly successful invaders
- 11 Drift of a continent: broken connections
- 12 The development of a climate: an arid continent with wet fringes
- Part II Modern invaders
- Index
- References
11 - Drift of a continent: broken connections
from Part I - Ancient invaders
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- 1 Testing hypotheses about biological invasions and Charles Darwin’s two-creators rumination
- Part I Ancient invaders
- 2 Australia’s Acacia: unrecognised convergent evolution
- 3 The mixed success of Mimosoideae clades invading into Australia
- 4 Perspectives from parrots on biological invasions
- 5 Invasion ecology of honeyeaters
- 6 The invasion of terrestrial fauna into marine habitat: birds in mangroves
- 7 The biological invasion of Sirenia into Australasia
- 8 Flying foxes and drifting continents
- 9 Invasion ecology of Australasian marsupials
- 10 Murine rodents: late but highly successful invaders
- 11 Drift of a continent: broken connections
- 12 The development of a climate: an arid continent with wet fringes
- Part II Modern invaders
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
We live on a continually shifting planet as the continents on which we have built our lives drift across the Earth’s surface, a process which has changed the configuration of the continents throughout Earth’s history and will continue to do so. A world map 250 Ma from now will reveal a very different arrangement of continents in the northern hemisphere than that observed today. Earth science studies have revealed the processes associated with continental movement known as plate tectonics; we have learnt that the Earth is made up of lithospheric plates carrying the continents and oceans, which driven by mantle processes are in continuous motion (Skinner and Porter 1987).
A map of the Earth’s plates (Figure 11.1) reveals the relative movement of each plate and their interactions along their boundaries such as subduction around the Pacific Ring of Fire, spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and transform faulting at the San Andreas Fault (Skinner and Porter 1987; Kearey and Vine 1996). Our world has been, and will continue to be, shaped by the movement of these plates (Skinner and Porter 1987).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Invasion Biology and Ecological TheoryInsights from a Continent in Transformation, pp. 241 - 255Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
References
, and (1994). Patterns in the history of Australia’s mammals and inferences about paleohabitats. In (ed.), History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 80–103.Google Scholar
, , and (2002). Evolution of the Australian lithosphere. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 49(4): 661–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (2007). 1600–1500 Ma hotspot track in eastern Australia: implications for Mesoproterozoic continental reconstructions. Terra Nova 19(6): 496–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2004). Terminal suturing of Gondwana and the onset of the Ross-Delamerian orogeny: the cause and effect of an Early Cambrian reconfiguration of plate motions. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 219: 35–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2008). Assembling Australia: Proterozoic building of a continent. Precambrian Research 166: 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , and (1987). Horizontal plate motion: a key allocyclic factor in the evolution of the Great Barrier Reef. Science 238(4834): 1697–1700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (2010). Geologically current plate motions. Geophysical Journal International 181: 1–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1994). Cretaceous vegetation: the microfossil record. In (ed.), History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 143–170.Google Scholar
and (1998). The early history of the Proteaceae in Australia: the pollen record. Australian Systematic Botany 11: 401–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1989). Late Pleistocene vegetation and environmental shifts in Australia and their bearing on faunal extinctions. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 207–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1937). Our Wandering Continents: An Hypothesis of Continental Drifting. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
(1994). The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People. Chatswood, Australia: Reed New Holland.Google Scholar
and (1991). Palaeoclimatic setting and palaeogeographic links of Australia in the Phanerozoic. In , , and (eds), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia. Melbourne, Australia: Pioneer Design Studio, pp. 111–146.Google Scholar
(1999). The break-up of Rodinia, birth of Gondwana, true polar wander and the snowball Earth. Journal of African Earth Sciences 28: 17–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2009). The Geology of Australia, 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1968). Evolution of mammals on southern continents. The Quarterly Review of Biology 43(4): 373–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1994). The Neogene: a period of transition. In (ed.), History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 299–327.Google Scholar
, and (2011). Australian island arcs through time: geodynamic implications for the Archean and Proterozoic. Gondwana Research 19: 716–734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1977). Early Cretaceous breakup of Gondwanaland off western Australia. Geology 5: 57–60.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2001). An outline of the palaeogeographic evolution of the Australasian region since the beginning of the Neoproterozoic. Earth Science Reviews 53: 237–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2002. Supersequences, superbasins, supercontinents – evidence from the Neoproterozoic–Early Palaeozoic basins of central Australia. Basin Research 14: 207–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2003). Paleozoic terranes of eastern Australia and the drift history of Gondwana. Tectonophysics 362: 41–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (1990). The Emergence of Animals. The Cambrian Breakthrough. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
(1994). Australian Tertiary phytogeography: evidence from palynology. In (ed.), History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 104–142.Google Scholar
and (2008). Models on Snowball Earth and Cambrian explosion: a synopis. Gondwana Research 14: 22–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2003). A synopsis of events related to the assembly of eastern Gondwana. Tectonophysics 362: 1–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1991). The Pleistocene megafauna of Australia. In , , and (eds), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia. Melbourne, Australia: Pioneer Design Studio, pp. 1071–1164.Google Scholar
(2007). The Neoproterozoic supercontinent Palaeopangaea. Gondwana Research 12: 202–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2006). Mesozoic to early Quaternary mammal faunas of Victoria, South-East Australia. Palaeonotology 49: 1237–1262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2000). The Adelaide Geosyncline of South Australia and its significance in Neoproterozoic continental reconstruction. Precambrian Research 100: 21–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1994). The background: 144 million years of Australian palaeoclimate and palaeogeography. In (ed.), History of the Australian Vegetation: Cretaceous to Recent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 14–43.Google Scholar
(1997). Mechanism and sequence of assembly and dispersal of supercontinents. Journal of Geodynamics 23(3/4): 155–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1991). Monotremes, placentals, and marsupials: their record in Australia and its biases. In , , and (eds), Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia. Melbourne, Australia: Pioneer Design Studio, pp. 893–1004.Google Scholar
, , et al. (2008). The Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens: World’s largest orogenies through geologic time, and their implications on the origin of superplume. Gondwana Research 14 (1/2): 51–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2009). Tectonics and surface effects of the supercontinent Columbia. Gondwana Research 15: 373–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2009). TOPO-OZ: insights into the various modes of intraplate deformation in the Australian continent. Tectonophysics 474: 405–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (2009). The making and breaking of supercontinents: some speculations based on superplumes, super downwelling and the role of tectosphere. Gondwana Research 15: 324–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2005). Apparent polar wander paths for the major continents (200 Ma to the present day): a palaeomagnetic reference frame for global plate tectonic reconstructions. International Journal of Geophysics 163: 727–759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(1991). Jurassic and Cretaceous plate tectonic reconstructions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 87: 493–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2011). Extent and timing of floristic exchange between Australian and Asian rain forests. Journal of Biogeography 38: 1445–1455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and (1991). Mineralogical composition and geographical distribution of African and Brazilian periatlantic laterites. The influence of continental drift and tropical paleoclimates during the past 150 million years and implications for India and Australia. Journal of African Earth Sciences 12(1/2): 283–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, , et al. (1996). Continental break-up and collision in the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic: a tale of Baltica and Laurentia. Earth Science Reviews 40(3/4): 229–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, (2010). Wombats: Evolution and Early History. Australian Natural History Series. Melbourne, Australia: CSIRO Publishing.Google Scholar
(2004). Gondwanaland from 650–500 Ma assembly through 320 Ma merger in Pangea to 185–100 Ma breakup: supercontinental tectonics via stratigraphy and radiometric dating. Earth Science Reviews 68: 1–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2006). Updated Gondwana (Permian-Cretaceous) earth history of Australia. Gondwana Research 9: 231–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(2009). Mid-Carboniferous Centralian uplift linked by U-Pb zircon chronology to the onset of Australian glaciation and glacio-eustasy. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 56: 711–717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
and (2000). Age and palaeomagnetism of the Mundine Well dyke swarm, Western Australia: implications for an Australia-Laurentia connection at 755 Ma. Precambrian Research 100: 335–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 1
- Cited by