Ice ages wiped out Australian plant diversity: study

Part of Australia's rich plant diversity was wiped out by the ice ages, proving that extinction, instead of evolution, influences biodiversity, scientists say.

Researchers led by the University of Melbourne and University of Tasmania found that plant diversity in South East Australia was as rich as some of the most diverse places in the world, and that most of these species went extinct during the ice ages, probably about one million years ago.

Dr Sniderman of the University of Melbourne's School of Earth Sciences said the findings show extinction is just as important to diversity of organisms as evolution.

"Traditionally scientists believed some places have more species than others because species evolved more rapidly in these places. We have overthrown this theory, which emphasises evolution, by showing that extinction may be more important," he said.

The study compared two regions of Southern Australia and South Africa.

"South-western Australia has a huge diversity of tough-leaved shrubs and trees such as eucalyptus, Banksia, Grevilleas and Acacias, making it one of the most biodiverse places on earth," Sniderman said in a statement.

"The southern tip of South Africa is even richer, with astonishing numbers of similar kinds of plants like proteas and ericas," he said.

For the study, researchers analysed plant fossils that accumulated in an ancient lake in South Eastern Australia. They found the region had at least as many tough-leaved plants 1.5 million years ago as Western Australia and South Africa do today.

"As Australia dried out over the past several million years, rainforest plants largely disappeared from most of the continent," said Sniderman.

"It has been thought that this drying trend allowed Australia's characteristic tough-leaved plants to expand and became more diverse. We have shown that the climate variability of the ice ages not only drove rainforest plants to extinction but also a remarkable number of tough-leaved, shrubby plants," he said.

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