Gondwana/ Gondwanaland

Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 7

Gondwana/ Gondwanaland

Hamilton

Tess Riches,

1 read with interest shaun Barnett’s photo-essay about the similar plant species to be found on the once-joined land masses that are now separate continents. (Forest & Bird, November 98). Usually I teach this topic from an Australian point of view, focussing on the uniqueness of Australian marsupials or correlating fossil sites across the expanses of vast oceans, so I enjoyed the Kiwi perpsective.

However, I am amazed that the term ‘Gondwanaland’ was used at all, let alone throughout the entire article. Gondwana is the correct term, replacing the out-dated and inaccurate ‘Gondwanaland’ The reason for this is clear when you consider the meaning of the term Gondwana. The Gonds were a tribe of ancient people in what we now call India. Gondwana means ‘land of the Gonds. Obviously ‘land of the Gonds land’ loses something in the translation. It makes as much sense as calling this country Aotearoaland!

— Tut tut! The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology gives us ‘Gondwana; The Penguin Dictionary of Biology, gives ‘Gondwanaland;} ‘named after a characteristic geological formation, the Gondwana’ Another case of Lake Rotorua redundancy, perhaps?