Archosauria include two extant clades, crocodylians and avians. However, the diversification of the avian and crocodylian crown groups are relatively recent events that began during the Late Cretaceous (Brochu 2001, 2003; Clarke et al. 2005), less than 100 Ma ago. These crown diversifications are shallow in time compared to the much deeper divergence of the crocodylian and avian stem lineages in the Triassic, approximately 250 Ma ago (Butler et al. 2011; Nesbitt 2011; Nesbitt et al. 2011). The early archosaurian diversification began in the wake of the devastating end-Permian mass extinction, and the divergence of both lineages and disparate body forms was rapid, occurring less than 10 Ma after the first archosaur (Nesbitt et al. 2010). This initial diversification was severely affected by the end-Triassic mass extinction approximately 50 Ma later, and only three major archosaur clades – pterosaurs, dinosaurs and crocodylomorphs – survived to diversify during the rest of the Mesozoic <...>

This book is about the study of landforms, a science commonly called geomorphology or physiography, and it differs from almost all other books on the subject in the vast time-scale that is considered.

Plate-tectonics principles have been routinely applied to the study of Phanerozoic orogenic belts and, more controversially, to Precambrian orogens as far back as the Early Archaean. Recent advances in a variety of fields have vastly improved our understanding of ancient orogenic belts, so that realistic modern analogues can be entertained. This volume presents up-to-date syntheses of some classic modern and ancient orogenic belts as well as examples of some of the processes responsible for their evolution.

Many mountains are the expression of fold-and-thrust belts and are of great interest to both mountaineers and geologists (who are often also mountaineers). They are fascinated by the peaks, volcanoes, valleys, and glaciers, which provoke the desire to either climb them or understand their genesis. The Andes, with a length of more than 8000 kilometers, constitute the longest mountain chain in the world, with several Cordilleras and diverse climates throughout. Early naturalists were captivated by them and began to carry out expeditions from the 19th century. These expeditions brought some of the earliest geological cross-sections depicting parts of the Andes (Fig. 1).