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Dinosaur Dreaming

Common questions:
Gondwana and continental drift

How do you know that the Earth was one continent if no human was alive to tell us?

Geologists can tell a lot about the way the Earth used to be from looking at the minerals in the rocks. When rocks are heated, some of the minerals inside all point towards the magnetic pole. This is the sort of information the geologists use to tell them how continents have moved through time.

Were all the countries joined together?

There have been a number of times in the past when continents have been joined together. (Try cutting out maps of South America and South Africa and seeing if you can fit them together side by side!) The main time when all of these continents were together was about 250 million years ago, during the Permian.

Is it possible that the Earth might break up again, like it did when the dinosaurs were living, and how much would a continent move in one million years?

The continents on the earth are constantly moving. Australia is moving northwards towards Asia at about 5 centimetres per year. This is about the same rate at which your fingernails grow!

I heard on the news that Antarctica is slowly melting, is this because Antarctica is moving on its plate, slowly moving North so it gets warmer?

As far as we can tell, even though Australia is moving away from Antarctica, Antarctica is pretty much staying over the South Pole. It is thought that some of the ice on Antarctica is melting because the world's climate is warming. This may be due to increased levels of 'greenhouse' gases in the atmosphere as a consequence of human air pollution.

Around how long would it have taken for the continents to come as far apart as they are now?

We know that the break-up of Gondwana started about 140 million years ago and Australia split from Antarctica at 96 million years ago. Australia is currently moving away from Antarctica at a speed of 6 cm per year, and is about 2,900 km away from Antarctica (1 km = 100,000 cm). How long would this much movement have taken? This result will NOT give you the accurate rate of movement, because Australia's motion has sped up and slowed down during its drift! The oldest sea-floor between Australia and Antarctica is about 96 million years old, so this is why we think they broke apart at this time.

Was the Great Dividing Range caused by the separation of Gondwana?

One of the ideas that geologists have for the formation of the Great Dividing Range is that there was a subduction zone (where one plate slides under another) along the East coast of Australia. This would have led to the building of mountains along the eastern side of Australia, some of which would have been volcanoes!

How did you know the plates were moving and what speed did they travel at, and how did you measure the speed of the plate's travel?

It was suggested that the plates had originally moved because some continents that are now far apart fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces, while others show similar rock types and fossils which could only be explained if they had once been joined. Most plates travel at speeds of between 1 and 15 cm per year.

The speeds at which plates travel can be measured today by satellites, which look at the time it takes for a light beam to bounce from one continent on one plate to another continent on another plate. If this time gets longer, then the rate of movement of the plates can be calculated.

How many plates are there and are they moving now?

The plates are the: Eurasian plate, Australian-Indian plate, Philippine plate, Pacific plate, Juan de Fuca plate, Nazca plate, Cocos plate, North American plates, Caribbean plate, South American plate, African plate, Arabian plate, and the Antarctic plate. There are also lots of smaller sub-plates within each plate. All of these plates are moving now. Most plates travel at speeds of between 1 and 15 cm per year.

What determines the size of the crack in the Earth's crust? Will it ever split completely in half?

The size of the crack, where a rift starts is controlled by the types of rocks on each side, and the rate of movement of each plate on each side of it. The crack doesn't stay a crack for long, because hot lava fills the crack, cooling almost immediately to make solid rock. The Earth won't split completely in half, because of this new rock filling in the crack.

How do you know that the Earth isn't getting any larger?

We can measure the amount of new rock that is being produced at spreading ridges, and also measure the amount of old rock that is being recycled at subduction zones. The amount of new rock is about equal to the amount of subduction, so we can tell that the Earth is staying about the same size!

Do you know what caused Gondwana to split into different parts?

How long did it take Gondwana to separate?

Will any other parts of Australia drift apart?

Large continents tend to split apart after a long time, because hot areas in the mantle below them cause the crust to get thin, and start moving away from the hot areas. This creates a new spreading ridge, and the continent becomes two smaller continents. It is possible that this will happen to Australia at some time in the future, though probably not in your life time.

How long do you think it would take for Australia to hit Asia?

It has been estimated that Australia will be part of Asia in about 40 million years.

Was Europe, North America and Asia a super continent?

Yes, it was called Laurasia. This broke away from Pangaea to form Laurasia at about 150 million years ago, the remaining part of Pangaea became Gondwana.

By the year 2000 will Australia have drifted further away from Papua New Guinea?

No, Australia and PNG are part of the same plate and so are moving northwards together. If anything, PNG may get crumpled even more than it already is as this plate moves towards Asia.

When Gondwana broke up did New Zealand come away from Australia then or later?

New Zealand broke away from Australia at about 76 million years ago, this is later than the break-up of Gondwana.

Why did the Continents break apart?

Will there ever be a stage when the continents stop drifting?

Yes, when the Earth finally cools down enough so that the core and mantle solidify. This won't happen for a few billion years, but there is evidence that it has already happened to Mars.

Because of all the subduction that is or was happening, do you think the Earth's land will deteriorate? If so at what speed?

Subduction doesn't destroy land, it just recycles it. The subducted plate is melted, mixed with sediments it carried, and other rock types in the mantle, and then erupted up to the surface again where it becomes part of new mountains. In this way continents are never destroyed, just recycled. Most subduction takes place at about 1-20 cm per year.

If we do crash with Asia will there be any problems?

Not for us, as this will happen very slowly, and in about 40 million years from now, however it will cause lots of problems for Australia's wildlife and plants as new species will be able to colonise Australia from Asia, and this will result in substantial change for the Australian wildlife and plants.

Gondwana separated, so will all the current continents divide into separate ones as well? So will we end up with little islands, then no land at all?

It is possible that some of the continents we know now will break up in the future, but others will certainly collide to make new continents. In this way the amount of continents in total stays about the same.

Is there any reason why there is both oceanic and continental crust covering the Earth?

Oceanic crust and Continental crust are made up of different types of minerals. Oceanic crust (like bluestone or basalt) contains heavier minerals than Continental crust (like granite or sandstone), so it sits lower on the mantle than the continents. This is why the oceans are deeper than the continents.

Are there any other continents in the world that have the same principles as Gondwana?

There was another super continent at the time of Gondwana, called Laurasia, made up of Nth America, Europe and Asia, which broke up as well. At the present day, you could say that Europe, Asia, India, and Africa almost make up a super continent.

Will the continents ever join back together again? And how?

Continents join back together again by the oceanic crust between them being subducted, or recycled, pulling them together. This has happened many times in the past and will happen in the future. It is unlikely that the continents will ever join again in exactly the same way, but there will be new super continents formed in the future!

How did you work out the age of the different types of rocks?

We can work out how old some rocks are by the principles of superposition and crosscutting. Superposition means that a rock layer in a cliff is usually younger than the layer below it, while crosscutting means that any rock that cuts through another rock must be younger than the rock it cuts through.

We can also look at radiometric dating, the change of one chemical element in a rock into another over time, and while radiometric dating can't be used on fossils, it can be used on nearby lava flows and granites and this combined with superposition and crosscutting gives us a date for the fossils.

What about the huge super-continent that existed millions of years ago called Pangaea? Is Gondwana another name for this super-continent? Did Gondwana exist with the other continent called Laurasia?

Pangaea was a super continent made up of Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the North. Laurasia broke away from Pangaea at about 150 million years ago, the remaining part of Pangaea became Gondwana.

Have you tried to see if any other continents connect with Gondwanaland?

Yes. Another super-continent called Laurasia (made up of Nth America, Europe, and Asia) fits onto the north of Gondwana. The two super-continents together were called Pangaea, meaning 'all lands'.

How do they know that Australia joined to Antarctica?

We can match the same rock types from Australia to Antarctica, we can look at the way the two continents fit together if you cut them out like pieces of a jigsaw, and we can match fossils on each side of the ocean to show that the same animals and plants lived there. We can also look at the age of the sea floor between Australia and Antarctica, and this shows us that at about 96 million years ago the two continents were together as one continent.

Were all the continents in the world once joined together?

The continents have joined and split apart many times in the history of the Earth. Another super-continent called Laurasia (made up of Nth America, Europe, and Asia) fits onto the north of Gondwana. The two super-continents together were called Pangaea, meaning 'all lands'.

What happened to the oceans, while all this was happening?

The oceans surrounded Gondwana, making it a large continent, or super-continent, in the middle of a large sea. As Gondwana broke apart, at the point that the valley between the rifting continents was low enough the oceans flooded the valley, creating a new sea between them. This will happen to the East African Rift Valley in a few million years from now.

Are Tasmania and Australia drifting apart?

No, there is no spreading ridge between Tasmania and Australia, they are both on the same continental block. East Gippsland almost broke off from the rest of Australia about 82 million years ago when a rift valley formed in Bass Strait, but the spreading stopped before it caused a proper break-up of Victoria! You can see the rift valley in some maps of the ocean floor off the Gippsland coast, it shows up as a deep part of the ocean.

What sort of animals do we have in Australia that may have originated in other continents?

That depends on whether you are referring to animals that you see around you today, or those that have lived in Australia in the past. Modern animals that come from other continents are: placental mammals (such as dogs, cows, rabbits, mice, humans), many species of birds (especially song birds (sparrows, blackbirds, wrens)), snakes (thought to have migrated from Asia more than 30 million years ago), imported fresh-water fish (carp, trout, some salmon), and some amphibians (cane toads).

Older migrations may have brought some dinosaurs to Australia across the Gondwana land mass, but we are still searching for evidence as to exactly where Australian dinosaur species evolved.

If bottom layer of Gondwana was ice for example, does it mean that at one stage in time the whole continent was made of ice, and if so how did the animals living there live?

During the Carboniferous and Permian, much of Gondwana was covered by ice. During those times we have little evidence of animals actually living there. Once the ice melted, in the Late Permian (240 million years ago) and the Triassic, animals were able to colonise most of Gondwana again. Gondwana stayed warm until about 40 million years ago, when the part of it now known as Antarctica froze over again.

Were the dinosaurs around when Gondwana broke up?

The break up of Gondwana began during the time that Dinosaurs were the dominant land animals (in the Cretaceous - 120 million years ago), but it was such a slow process that they were unlikely to be affected by it. Continents break up and move apart at about the same speed you fingernails grow at (about 6 cm per year in the case of Australia and Antarctica breaking apart); by the time Australia had completely broken away from Antarctica, all dinosaurs (except birds) were extinct.

What was the weather like on Gondwana?

The weather on Gondwana was about as variable as the weather is in Australia. It varied depending on where you were. There were global climate changes affecting the earth, resulting in glaciation followed by a warming of the whole Earth. During the glacial times, much of Gondwana would have been like Antarctica is today, while during the warmer times it would have been like walking through a rainforest in North Queensland today.

Did the plants and animals of Gondwana have to change in any way to survive?

All animals and plants have to change or adapt all the time to survive. These changes are very slow, but can be seen by looking at the fossil record. During the cold times in Gondwana (around 270 million years ago), only animals and plants that were able to survive in cold environments were able to survive there, but once the continent warmed up other animals were able to live there, and cold-adapted animals either had to find mountain tops to live on (where it stayed cold), or adapt to the new warm environments. As plants were unable to migrate, they changed or died.

What other plants and animals lived in Gondwana?

Many other plants and animals lived on Gondwana. We have found many different fossil species on continents that were part of Gondwana, and more are being found every year. The ancestors to modern marsupials, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and many plants such as ginkgoes, cycads, many pines, and flowering plants appear in the fossil record from Gondwana.

A good book to look at for more information on animals is "Wildlife of Gondwana" by Pat Vickers-Rich and Tom Rich, while "Greening of Gondwana" by Mary White has lots of information about Gondwanan plants.

Who was the first person to find a fossil?

People have been finding fossils for as long as they have been looking at the ground! Ancient Chinese found bones of dinosaurs eroding out of the ground and called them dragons. They thought that dragon bones would be good medicine, and so many dinosaurs were ground up into dust and swallowed!

Travellers in the early part of this millennium crossing the Gobi desert, saw Protoceratops skulls eroding out of the cliffs, and created legends of Griffins, mythical beasts with the head of an eagle, the paws of a lion and wings. The first person to recognise the significance of fossils, as being bones and evidence of past life, was Georges Cuvier, at the end of the 18th Century, who described the bones of extinct elephants, compared them to living elephants, and recognised the fossils as being ancestors to living elephants.

In the separation of Gondwana why did all the kangaroos stay in Australia? Why didn't a few of them go into India and multiply? Why are all animals separated?

Kangaroos hadn't evolved when Australia broke away from Antarctica. The ancestral marsupial would have been present in India, but appears to have been outcompeted by placental mammals there, so no marsupials are found in India today.

Animals are separated by geography (rivers, mountains, oceans), and also by their genetics (only closely related animals can breed together). This is though to be an adaptation to allow animals to occupy as many different environments as possible without having to come into competition.

Were there dinosaurs on Gondwanaland and what type of Australian Animals were on Gondwanaland?

Yes, there were dinosaurs on all of the parts of Gondwana. Dinosaur fossils have been found in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, India, and even Antarctica. The ancestors of many of the animals you see today in Australia were on Gondwana, such as: Marsupials, Monotremes, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. Most placental mammals (like rabbits, mice, humans) appear to have migrated into Australia after it broke away from Gondwana.

How many species existing now would have been in existence in "Gondwana" times?

It is almost certain that no species existing now would have been in existence in Gondwanan times. Species change all the time to adapt to their environment, leading to the creation of new species. Many of the same groups of animals and plants were around then, but they were ancestral forms, like the tree Nothophagus (Southern Beech), and Steropodon (an ancestral Platypus). Things back then would have looked similar to you if you walked through some parts, but others would have been very different in may ways.

Is India moving away from us while we are moving towards it?

India and Australia are both on the same crustal plate. Both are moving away from Antarctica at the same rate. In the early stages of the break-up, they were parts of different plates, and there was an active spreading ridge between India and Australia, but that spreading has been long stopped, and they are both moving together northwards.

Are we moving towards Volcanic Hot Spots?

We don't know of any Hot Spot that we are currently moving towards. The only possibly active Hot Spot in the Australian region is lying off the coast of South Australia just south of Mt. Gambier, and appears to be responsible for most of the extinct volcanoes to the West of Melbourne.

How come Gondwana is called a "Super Continent"?

A super continent is a word that is used to describe a really BIG continent, often made up of lots of smaller continents joined together. As Gondwana was made up of continents that are now Australia, India, South America, South Africa, and Antarctica, it is certainly a Super Continent!

How can plants have fossils?

Plants become fossils by their stems, leaves and flowers being trapped in sediments like mud and sand. Sometimes they decay altogether, and all that is left is an impression in the rock of where they were (like pressing a leaf into plasticine), other times they leave behind part of their structures as a carbon imprint on the rock, so that it is a different colour to the rest of the rock.

How fast are the plates moving?

Plates move at different speeds depending on which one you are standing on, but most move at very slow speeds of between 1 and 15 centimetres a year. Australia is moving away from Antarctica at about the speed your fingernails are growing at, 6 cm per year, so whenever you cut your fingernails, that's about how much further you have moved from Antarctica.

Did the ancestors of the platypus have adult teeth?

Yes they did and the teeth had enamel on the outside. Today just hatched platypuses have teeth that soon drop out, but these teeth only have dentine.

Why didn't the platypus survive in other areas of Gondwana land?

That's a very good question - unless we had a time machine - in Patagonia they probably died out because it became so dry - no rivers. In Antarctica (where they probably also once lived) the build-up of the ice cap would have crowded them out.

Are there any animals similar to the Platypus living in South America?

Not now - but 50 million years ago they lived there.

Are the mountains between India and Asia still getting larger?

The are still growing taller.

Do inland mountains come from the movement of plates?

Sometimes - like the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. Some volcanic mountains - like up the east coast of Australia result from hot spots.

Did Gonds live in caves or underground?

The earliest Gonds (a tribe of people in India) may have used cave shelters in much the same way as almost all early people would have, but these days they live in cities in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh, where their language - Gondi - is still spoken today.

Are there any species that live in one country but millions of years ago where they lived on other countries?

Yes, the platypus is a good example of this. In the Cretaceous it lived in both Australia and in South America, but now it is only found in Australia. Lions once lived throughout Europe and Asia as well as Africa, but now they are only found in Africa.

Which animal evolved into the kangaroo?

Sthenurus, an ancestor and relative of the modern kangaroo, which lived until about 20,000 years ago, was much larger than modern-day kangaroos - it stood about 2 1/2 metres tall. All kangaroos evolved from a common marsupial ancestor in the Late Cretaceous to the Early Cainozoic, which also would have been the ancestor of the wombats and koalas.

Which continent had the greatest range of animal species after the separation? Was there a specific number or very large number of species (exact) on Gondwana?

These are really difficult questions to answer! We are still finding new fossil species all the time on all continents, especially insect and other invertebrate species, and it is estimated that less than 10% of all species living now have been discovered and named!

Australia may well have had one of the most diverse faunas after the separation, as it was the only continent (apart from Antarctica) that did not have later invasions by species from other continents that out-competed the animals already living there, and also, Australia has moved through a wide range of different temperature and rainfall zones as it has moved northwards after the separation.

Were the platypus remains found in South America the same as platypus today - size/features?

We don't know the exact size of the South American platypus, as the only fossil we have of them is a partial jaw! We do know that they had teeth all through their lives, unlike modern platypus that only have them as infants, but as for the rest of the animal, it is like trying to imagine exactly how big a cow is from part of a cow's skull!

How do you know what it was like millions of years ago?

We can study the types of rocks that were laid down during this time, and look at the types of fossils we find in them. Some rock types are only made in rivers (like conglomerates), others only made in lakes (like mudstones full of leaf fossils).

By analysing chemicals in those rocks we can tell what the temperature was like when they were formed, and by looking at the types of plants we can tell if there was a lot of rain, or of the area was a desert! All this information put together gives a picture of the whole environment.

If the animals aren't the same or don't look the same from years ago, how do you know they are the same animals?

If they don't look the same, they are not the same animals, but they may be related to living animals! You don't look the same as your parents, or brothers/sisters, but you are related! We look for small things that are similar, and use them to tell us about relationships.

Would animals similar to Australia's fauna have existed in Antarctica before the continents split?

Yes and no! There would not have been animals like what you see today in Australia, as they only evolved later, but the animals existing in Australia before the split would have also lived in nearby parts of Antarctica at the same time. Antarctica would have provided a way for animals to migrate between the continents that made up Gondwana and Australia, and there would have been some animals that migrated, but others that didn't!

Unfortunately, most of Antarctica is under large ice sheets, so it is difficult to look for fossils there, but the ones that have been found suggest some exchange of fauna.

Has Antarctica's climate influenced Australia's faunas' physical appearance because of the late separation?

No, Antarctica didn't become cold and ice covered until well after the separation, so it's current climate would not have had an influence on the appearance of modern Australian fauna (with the possible exception of penguins, whales and seals which are found both in Australia and Antarctica and are adapted to the climates of both).

Why weren't there any two-legged mammals on Gondwanaland?

Man is the only animal we know of that habitually moves around on two legs (although some other apes can walk on two legs for short times), kangaroos and wallabies are bipedal for some movement, and quadrupedal while feeding.

It appears that humans and their ancestors didn't evolve until about 3-4 million years ago, and this was well after the break-up of Gondwana occurred. Kangaroos and wallabies don't appear in the fossil record until after the separation as well.

Do you have any idea of what mammals will look like in 50 million years?

A good book to look up in a library is "After Man" by Dougal Dixon. There are lost of pictures in it that show what man and other animals may look like in 50 million years, but your guess is as good as his or ours!

Do you have any idea who will rule the Earth in 1 million years?

No! It depends on what humans do to themselves and the environment in the intervening time! This would make a good story or project for your class.

How did humans manage to spread on different continents? How did humans develop?

It appears that humans walked throughout most of Africa and Asia, and crossed into America through the Bering Strait while it was frozen during a particularly cold winter. Humans built rafts and boats that allowed them to colonise Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

The exact timing of this colonisation, and where it all began is still being worked on by anthropologists and archaeologists. Humans appear to have developed from an ape-like ancestor, possibly in the African rift valley region, but again, there are lots of different theories about this too.

Were there any marsupials in Gondwana?

Monotremes (like echidnas and platypus) are known to have been in Australia and South America while they were still part of Gondwana, but the oldest marsupials we know of are from the early Cainozoic (about 62 million years ago) after the separation, from both Australia and South America. For them to appear on both continents there must have been some common ancestor in Gondwana, but we are still looking for it.

If the continents join again, would it be most likely for animals in Asia and India to move into Australia?

Some birds and animals have already moved from Asia and India into Australia (birds, some placental mammals, reptiles, bats, man), but if there are land connections between Asia and Australia, it is much easier for animals to migrate in! In 50 million years it is likely that there will be a lot more Asian animals in Australia than there are now, and there may even be some Australian animals in Asia.

Would it ever be possible for states in Australia to unlink?

The states in Australia are borders that were decided upon by the government of Australia; except for Tasmania, there is no geological or physical difference between being on one side of a state boundary to being on the other!

If the mantle beneath a state boundary got hot enough, a rift could form between two states that may eventually lead to them drifting apart, but this would take many millions of years to occur and is just as likely to happen within a state as at a boundary!

What types of proof is there that continents exchanged animals?

The best proof is in the fossils found on each continent! We know that the dingo came into Australia from Asia about 40,000 years ago, as it is found in the fossil record in Asia for a long time before then, but there are no dingo bones in Australia older than 40,000 years.

Why are there some animals in Australia that are not in the rest of Gondwanaland?

Many of the animals you see today in Australia evolved after the split-up of Gondwana. They had no way of moving to the other continents, as Australia was surrounded by sea, and so they are only found on Australia.

Did the continents start off stuck together? Were the Northern Continents stuck together like Gondwanaland?

Continents have been coming together and breaking apart again for the whole history of the Earth, and will continue to do so into the future! Before Gondwana, Pangaea was a super continent made up of Gondwana in the south and Laurasia in the North.

Laurasia (made up of Nth America, Europe and Asia) broke away from Pangaea at about 150 million years ago, the remaining part of Pangaea became Gondwana. At the present day, you could say that Europe, Asia, India, and Africa almost make up a super continent.

What made the evolution of animals happen, and what made the animals on one country so different from the animals on another? eg. climate.

The animals you see are adapted to their environments. Similar environments lead to animals that look similar, even though they may have had very different ancestors (for example, the echidna and the hedgehog).

Evolution is the change in animals as they adapt to changing environments. Animals that are adapted to a desert environment will look very different to animals that are adapted to a rainforest environment.

What will happen to all the animals when the countries join again? Will they be attacked by other animals and become extinct?

As animals are able to migrate into different countries there will be competition between animals using the same food resources. The ones best adapted to the environment will survive, while others will become extinct. This is the same as how rabbits have out-competed many marsupial species, driving them to the edge of extinction.

Will any other states in Australia become like Tasmania and have the ocean flowing through it and another state? If so, which state?

Because so many animals are becoming extinct is there a possibility that all the animals will become extinct in a few million years?

There have been times in the history of the Earth when more than 90% of all animal species have become extinct (like at the end of the Permian - 240 million years ago, when an ice age resulted in mass extinctions).

After each mass extinction, the remaining species have evolved into new and varied forms to take advantage of the available resources around them. This may happen again in the future. The problem at the moment is that we are changing the environment so fast that it is difficult for evolution of species to keep up with it!

How did North America and South America join up together?

South America joined with North America as South America drifted northwards after the break-up of Gondwana. This allowed many North American species to colonise South America, and also allowed opossums to move from South America into North America.

When Australia joins with Asia, which animals will become extinct?

In Australia, it is common for placental mammals to be able to out-compete marsupials, and this may continue when Australia joins with Asia.

Who exactly are the Gonds?

The Gonds are tribe that lived in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (look it up in an Atlas!). Their state gave the world the first evidence that India was part of a super continent, later called Gondwana.

Were there any animals resembling humans or gorillas in Gondwana?

There were no humans or gorillas in Gondwana. It appears that humans and their ancestors didn't evolve until about 3-4 million years ago, and this was well after the break-up of Gondwana occurred.

If Gondwana was a whole continent, why did some animals go with Africa, some with Asia, some with Australia, etc?

Within a continent, especially one as large as Gondwana, different animals live in different environments. Imagine if Australia broke up today - you would find Fairy Penguins only in the part that had been Victoria, and Tasmania, you would find crocodiles only in the parts that had been North Queensland, Nth NT, and Nth WA, and you would only find Jarrah trees in the part that had been the South of WA.

What do you mean by terrestrial animals?

A terrestrial animal is one that lives on land, such as people, cats, dogs, kangaroos, most snakes, most lizards. An aquatic animal is one that lives in water (like fish, dolphins, whales, seals) and an amphibian is an animal that can live on land or in water (like frogs and toads).

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