This is an evolutionary understanding of Australia’s marine fauna that can explain the modern bio-geographic patterns and assist vulnerability-risk assessments of fish families to present and future environmental changes. It is interesting that the Australian continent emerges as a reservoir of biodiversity for the indo-Pacific Ocean in geological periods and as a Noah’s Ark’ for biodiversity in modern days. Read the full NERP report here. In the photo a fossil of an extinct ray. The maskrays originated after the collision of the Australian and Eurasian plates and their speciation may have been accelerated by falls in sea level millions of years ago (Image by John Adamek).
