Traditions of extinct animals, changing sea-levels and volcanoes among Australian Aboriginals: evidence from linguistic and ethnographic research

Some chapters in this volume (Garanger, Frimigacci) highlight correlations between oral traditions and archaeological evidence from the Pacific area, an area where genealogies and persons of note have been important in the cultures. This chapter focuses on some actual and other possible correlations of myth and oral history about land (and sea) and fauna with palaeontological and archaeological data amongst Australian Aboriginal groups, where land and totemic relationship to fauna are of high cultural importance.