THE EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY OF SOUTHWESTERN AUSTRALIA’S PLANTS AND ANIMALS Professor Tim Flannery

Over millions of years the southwestern corner of Australia has acted as a refuge for species that were once widespread. It is a land of living fossils, many of which have not only survived but thrived and diversified. The bell-clapper shell belongs to a family of marine snails that wereonce spread around the world. When the sewers of Paris were being dug in the 19th century, workers found bell clapper shells that were almost a metre long and 50 million years old.

Today, the only place you can see these shells is around the coast of Australia's southwest. The beautiful dwarf eucalyptsof the marlock group today can only be seen in the southwest, but 5 million years ago they grew around rainforests in eastern Australia. And the southwest played a crucial role in the evolutionary history of echidnas. These are just 3 examples among a multitude of species that make…