Natural and Cultural History of North-East Australia's Wet Tropical Forests

2007-10-23T14:57:44Z

144.138.253.153: Tectonic Plate movements!!

Under provisions of the World Heritage Convention, in 1989, the United Nation's World Heritage Committee inscribed 900 000 hectares of north-east Australia's wet tropical forests on to the World Heritage list as being heritage of outstanding universal significance to humankind.

This, then, is a history of this universally significant heritage. It is a natural and cultural history that reaches back to Gondwanaland, moves through time into the present, then onwards, 50 years hence, into a predicted globally warmer future. 
 

====[insert Map of North-East Australia's Wet Tropical Forests]====

=Chapter 1: Paelozoic Era (545 000 000 - 290 000 000)=

=Chapter 2: Mesozoic Era (290 000 000 - 65 000 000)=

==Permian Period (290 000 000 - 248 200 000)==

==Triassic Period (248 200 000 - 205 700 000)==

==Jurassic Period (205 700 000 - 142 000 000)==

'''205 700 000''' :
What is in the present called Australia, was, at this time, part of a single continent (Gondwana) comprised of an amalgamation of present Australia, Africa, South America, Madagascat, India, and Antarctica.<ref name="Adam001">ADAM, Paul (1994) Australian Rainforests. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Page 138</ref>

'''160 000 000''' :
West Gondwana (present Africa and South America) start to seperate from East Gondwana (Australia, Antarctic, India, and Madagascar), with South America and Antarctic still connected.<ref name="Adam001"/>

==Cretaceous Period (142 000 000 - 65 000 000)==

====Barremian Epoch (142 000 000 - xxx)====
The world's first evolutionary burst of angiosperms (see Gloassary) occurs at this time.<ref name="Truswell">TRUSWELL, E.W (1990) "''Australian Rainforests: The 100 Million Year Record''", in WEBB, L.J & KIKKAWA, J (Eds) Australian Tropical Rainforests: Science, Values, Meaning. CSIRO Publications. Melbourne</ref>.

This evolutionary burst produced pollen of a type now (in the present) referred to by the fossil name '''Clavatipellonites'''. These ''Clavatipellonites'' appear and spread around the world (as it was then), though they don't yet reach Australia.<ref name="Truswell"/>

'''128 000 000''' :
India (tectonic plate)splits away form West Australia and moves to the north east.<ref name="Adam002">ADAM, Paul (1994) Australian Rainforests. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Page 139</ref>

====Aptian Epoch (xxx - 113 000 000)====
It is first during this Epoch that the worlds first angiosperms (represented in the fossil record by the ''Clavatipellonites'') reach Australia and enter the Australian ecological mixes of the time, somewhat later than other parts of the Asian world.<ref name="Truswell"/>

The world's first angiosperms heavily dependent on wind pollenation appear in tropical west Africa spreading poleward. The pollens of these plants are smaller, radially symmetrical grains, generally succeeding and replacing the ''Clavatipellonite'' pollens around the world during this epoch., though, again (similar to the delayed spread of the ''Clavatipellonites''), they do not reach Australia.<ref name="Truswell"/>

====Albian Epoch (113 000 000 - 97 500 000)====

'''95 000 000''' :
East Gondwana (including present Australia) becomes further fragmented, with two further plates, present Lord Howe Rise/New Zealand and Antarctica coming into existence.<ref name="Adam002"/>

====Cenomanian Epoch (97 500 000 - xxx)====

'''80 000 000''' :
The present Australian tectonic plate and the New Zealand tectonic plate seperate relatively rapidly (on a geological timescale) from this date.<ref name="Adam002"/>

=Chapter 3: Cenozoic Era (65 000 000 years to 000 000)=

==Tertiary Sub-Era==

===Paleaogene Period (65 000 000 - 23 800 000)===

====Palaeocene Epoch (65 000 000 - 54 800 000)====

====Eocene Epoch (54 800 000 - 33 700 000)====

'''45 000 000''' :
Present Australian tectonic plate begins to move rapidly (on a geological timescale) northwards, seperating from present Antarctica and seperated by a shallow sea. At the same time the spreading between present India and Australia ceases, and the two seperate plates 'coalese' to form an Indo-Australian Plate.<ref name="Adam002"/>

====Oligocene Epoch (33 700 000 - 23 800 000)====

===Neogene Period (23 800 000 - 1 800 000)===

'''15 000 000''' :
Present Australia's northward drift continues and, at this time, the Australian plate collides with the South-East Asian plate, ending 30 million years (ie 45 000 000 - 15 000 000) of isolation, and marking the first contact between Australia and South-East Asia.<ref name="Adam002"/>
====Miocene Epoch (23 800 000 - 5 300 000)====

====Pliocene Epoch (5 300 000 - 1 800 000)====

==Quartenary Sub-Era==

===Pliestogene Period (1 800 000 - 000)===

====Pleistocene Epoch (1 800 000 - 10 000)====

'''164 000 BP''':
Human ancestors in this world (South Africa) are, by this date, using fire to cook shellfish (mussells); have started using ochres; and, for general anthropological purposes, these ancestors have skills, technologies, and lifestyles of a kind that is classed as 'modern human'<ref>BORENSTEIN, Seth (2007) ''"Early Seafood, Makeup found in South Africa"'' see Yahoo News, 17 October 2007</ref>, 

====Holocene Epoch (10 000 - 000)====

=Chapter 4: Aboriginal Ecologies (130 000 - 1770?)=

'''130 000''' BP :
Quanties of charcoal particles within river sediments leap upward, together with noticeable changes in the kinds of pollens most prevalent in those sediments.

These chacoal particles and pollen fossils document and record an significant increase in the burning of the biomass of the river catchments out of which sediment has fallen. Together this record may signal the first arrival of Aboriginal 'burning' and Aboriginal 'fire regimes' into north-east Australia's ecological mix.<ref>MOSS, P.T & KERSHAW, A. P (2000) ''"The last glacial cycle from the humid tropics of northeastern Australia: comparison of a terrestrial and marine record".'' Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Vol 155, Pages 155–176.</ref>

=Chapter 5: European Ecologies (1770 - 1860)=

=Chapter 6: Queensland State Ecologies (1860 - 1900)=

=Chapter 7: Australian Nation Ecologies (1900 - 1989)=

=Chapter 8: World Heritage Ecologies (1989 - 2050)=

=Conclusion=

=Attachments=

==Glossary==

'''Angiosperms''' : of all the world's 'seed' plants, angiosperms are those plants whose 'ovules' (within which seeds are produced) are enclosed. Angiosperms are also known and referred to as the 'flowering plants' of the world.<ref>Wikipedia (2007)
"''Angiosperms''". Accessed 23 October 2007</ref>

'''Gymnosperms''' : of all the world's 'seed' plants, gymnosperms are those plants whose 'ovules' (within which seeds are produced) are not enclosed but are, rather, exposed on the edge of a leaf blade or within a cone like structure. The term 'Gymnosperm' comes a Greek word (gumnospermos) meaning 'naked seeds'<ref>Wikipedia (2007) "''Gmymnosperms''". Accessed 23 October 2007</ref>

==Annotated List of Places==

==Annotated List of Ecological Communities==

==Annotated List of Flora and Fauna==

==Annotated List of Aboriginal Language Groups==

=References=
<references/>

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Natural and Cultural History of North-East Australia's Wet Tropical Forests