Page 65 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

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Australasia

If we could step back through history, instead of seeing the continents

that are so familiar today, we’d find one vast landmass called Pangaea.
This ‘super continent’ began to divide about 175 million years ago.

he breakup was a slow, almost imperceptible Zealand took much longer to be discovered.The first
process – and one that took place while dinosaurs Polynesian migrants arrived there just 2000 years ago.And
Tstill walked the Earth. By the time of the Early the rest of the world remained ignorant of the beauty of
Cretaceous period (some 146–100 million years ago), these great southern lands until European settlers come in
sections of Pangaea had begun to drift south.This the 1700s.And when they did come, they were amazed by
movement would eventually create Australia, New Zealand what they found.
and their surrounding islands. These spectacular islands had been isolated for so long
Today, these spectacular island nations are often referred that their flora and fauna were unlike anything that the
to as Australasia – a group that comprises Australia, New settlers had ever seen before. Here was the emu, a giant
Zealand and their neighbours.The island of New Guinea, bird that is unable to fly. Here was the echidna, a species
including Papua New Guinea, is also sometimes included that once lived alongside dinosaurs – and which has barely
as part of Australasia because it shares many economic and changed since. Here too was the duck-billed platypus, an
historic ties. animal so odd that European scientists could not believe it
Humans found their way to the largest of these land was real.And there were also kangaroos and koala bears.
masses,Australia, only about 48,000 years ago. New Welcome to Australasia!

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.