How come Australia managed to have its own unique flora and fauna

>>2473879
Yeah all those fabled trees that are identical in Argentina, Norway and Thailand, and completely different in Australia

>>2473883
You know what I'm asking, can you not be a smartass, please?

>>2473884
We don't know what you mean. Elaborate.

probably one of the first territories to drift away from the pangea, it's one of the rare territories on earth were marsupials were not hunted to extinction by placentals and actually thrived

>>2473879
Because the rest of the world is pretty much connected by land, even North America used to be connected to Eurasia for a long time.

>>2473886
Alright, I'll try to ask it as a child would.

Mommy, how come there's no native kangaroos anywhere else in the world aside from Australia?

>>2473879
I can't answer your question. All I can say is this continent is nothing but death and suffering. Only the most fucked up and decrepit creatures can survive this place. Sometimes I wonder if the Aboriginals suffer from an in built genetic nihilism because of it, could explain the absence of civilisation.

File: Avatar_archer.jpg (7KB, 184x184px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 184x184px

>>2473905
Don't be sad, Bruce, I still love you. Do you want a hug?

>>2473899
Because placentals outcompeted the marsupials elsewhere, except for some instances in South America. Australia was more or less isolated and a larger exchange of fauna and flora started only when it was colonized by Europeans.
South America used to have similarly unique fauna before the Great American Interchange, when it connected with North America.

Besides marsupials there's not much unique to Australia.

>>2473899
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemism

Start reading if you want answers. But its not really that hard to figure out, its and ISLAND that was CUT OFF from rest of the world for most of its history. There are shittons of organisms in Brazil or Madagascar too that aren't anywhere else in the world, your average plebian (OP) just doesn't know about them.

It, Madagasca and Antarctica are the only remnants of Gondwana that didn't link up with Laurasia.

Because Australia is an evolutionary backwater that was cut off from the rest of the world before Placental Mammals could displace marsupials.

The only placentals on Australia of any substance for the longest time were Humans and Feral dogs descended from proto-domesticated dogs who tagged along

>>2473914
Also speaking of endemism, galapagos are fucking awesome

>seabed rose above the sea level due to vulcanic process
>some lizards and birds randomly got on the newly raised rocky islands
>create completely unique ecosystem and evolve in completely unique way

>>2473916
>The only placentals on Australia of any substance for the longest time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bats_of_Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rodents_of_Australia
Also, cats have possibly been here for as long as dogs.

>>2473938
That's why I said of any substance.

There were no competitors for the Marsupials who filled the higher niches in Australia, and no room for them to evolve to compete for them.

>>2473905

You're a fucking idiot. This is the most biodiverse land on earth. Go for a bushwalk and open your eyes.

>>2473916

>evolutionary backwater
>sydney region has more species than ALL of europe
>song birds evolved in australia and migrated everywhere else

Try again sweety

>>2473879
Why do you think? Because it's a yuge island far from other land masses. Even Asia and the Americas were connected not too long ago in geological terms.

>>2473915
Bullshit, Madagascar was united with Africa once briefly.

>>2475311
Birds evolve differently than Mammals and aren't bound by the same physical barrier.

>>2476727

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2016/08/the-worlds-songbirds-island-hopped-out-of-australia