8pm,
Thursday, June 7th at Building 116 (BoZo), Australian National
University
Ian Fraser will give a
presentation on the natural history of PATAGONIA based on his recent visit to
this stunning region of South America. There will be numerous images of
flora, fauna and the scenery of this magnificently different
place.
Patagonia; the Andes, the Straits of Magellan, vast plains and ancient
beech forests. It is a huge lightly populated land of great and dramatic beauty
pointing far into the Southern Ocean towards Antarctica. The land face has been
- and continues to be - shaped by glaciers. The plants and animals however are
the result of three quite separate episodes of South American history. These
were the time as part of Gondwana, with the subsequent sharing of old plant and
animal groups with other southern lands; the long isolation of nearly 60 million
years, during which evolution proceeded uninfluenced by the directions being
pursued elsewhere; and finally the recent collision with North America, which
introduced a host of new players. Local naturalist Ian Fraser visited there last
summer, and is keen to share his delight and excitement at what he found
there.
