Prehistoric Australasia. Vision of evolution and extinction / Доисторическая Австралазия. Видение эволюции и вымирание

Palaeontologists can no more stop digging up fossils than stop breathing – it’s an obsession! Australasian palaeontologists are particularly driven to do this because the biological histories of Australia and its smaller neighbour, Zealandia, are the least understood of all the occupied continents. Hence, every new discovery can have a huge impact on what we previously understood about the once normal inhabitants of this very unusual continent. However, while discovery of a new tooth row or skull can send palaeontologists into fits of excitement, for the general public to share in the excitement of discovery, it often takes the palaeoartist’s multifaceted skills to transform the scientists’ discoveries into the next best thing to flesh and blood. To produce this book, Prehistoric Australasia: Visions of Evolution and Extinction, many palaeontologists have worked closely for years with palaeoartist Peter Schouten to produce a unique series of panoramas, windows in time that span the last 3.6 billion years of extraordinary life of Australasia and the south-west Pacific. <...>