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Biogeography and Ecology of the Reptiles of Tasmania and the Bass Strait Area

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Biogeography and Ecology in Tasmania

Part of the book series: Monographiae Biologicae ((MOBI,volume 25))

Abstract

The distribution patterns of terrestrial animals and plants in Tasmania and the Bass Strait area are of great interest, for disjunctions of range can be dated and may help to reveal something of the environmental conditions prevailing at the time of isolation. Parsons(1969, 1970) has shown there are disjunctions of plant species that can be correlated with sea level (and climatic) changes in the last Pleistocene glacial period (the Late Wisconsin) in south-eastern South Australia, in the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas and on Kangaroo Island, and in south-western Western Australia. Thus the value of studies on Tasmanian and Bass Strait island animals and plants is increased if they also occur in these areas. Of the terrestrial vertebrates, only the reptiles can throw much light on historical biogeography, for almost every southern Australian island has a reasonably large reptile fauna, and there are disjunctions between the southeastern and south-western temperate areas. On the other hand, only the largest islands have amphibians, the mammals are poorly represented and appear to have suffered many extinctions (Spencer & Kershaw, 1910), and the birds are highly vagile, the present island avifaunas probably resulting from many invasions and colonizations since the end of the Late Wisconsin glacial.

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  1. Department of Zoology, Latrobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083, Australia

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Rawlinson, P.A. (1974). Biogeography and Ecology of the Reptiles of Tasmania and the Bass Strait Area. In: Williams, W.D. (eds) Biogeography and Ecology in Tasmania. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2337-5_12

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