'This incredibly ambitious publication covers more than a half billion years of tectonic movements and paleobiogeographic patterns … the events and patterns discussed do not occur in temporal or spatial isolation. Torsvik and Cocks did an admirable job of acknowledging these boundaries while writing the text in a format that is not confined by those limits. The authors have taken great care to provide extensive maps, including numbering and listing tectonic units in helpful ways … [The book] will provide the broad perspective that is foundational for other types of questions in biogeography. In addition to the unique strength of this volume in synthesizing immense amounts of data, the authors have much more information freely available online. The programs and data at their website open new innovative ways for teaching, the ability to explore research ideas, and a fun way to look at more maps.' Dennis R. Ruez, Jr, The Quarterly Review of Biology
Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction; 2. Methods for locating old continents and terranes; 3. Tectonic units of the Earth; 4. Earth's origins and the Precambrian; 5. Cambrian; 6. Ordovician; 7. Silurian; 8. Devonian; 9. Carboniferous; 10. Permian; 11. Triassic; 12. Jurassic; 13. Cretaceous; 14. Paleogene; 15. Neogene and Quaternary; 16. Climates past and present; Endnote; Appendix 1. Location of Phanerozoic Large Igneous Provinces; Appendix 2. Mesozoic to modern Panthalassic and Pacific Ocean plates; Appendix 3. Orogenies; References; Index.