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Description
Millions of years into the future, Australia has become a much drier continent. Due to human-accelerated climate change, rainfall was reduced across much of the continent, leading to the spread of eucalypt woodlands and plains populated by hardy grasses. This new environment has in turn caused bushfires to increase in intensity and abundance. Here, the most common grazers are various species of kangaroos and wallabies, as their ancestors had the speed to escape the flames. Though these animals initially had no major predators (their last predator, humans, having died out ages ago), nature abhors a vacuum, so it was only a matter of time before predatory animals evolved to feed on the new grazers.

The top predator of the future Australian woodlands and grasslands is not a mammal, but a reptile. As reptiles require less water than mammals, they were able to weather the climate change better. Subsequently, they dominate the ecosystems of future Australia; this is especially true for the predatory goannas. The most widespread future goannas are the swift monitors, which developed a more upright stance that proved advantageous for hunting the fast-moving kangaroos and for escaping fires.

Pictured above is the eastern swift monitor, a 3m long lizard that inhabits open woodlands. Though too large to climb trees as an adult, the young are almost entirely arboreal, subsisting on a diet of insects and small mammals.

So there’s been this series on the news about how climate change will affect Australia (basically, it’ll get much drier and hotter), and it got me thinking about how the fauna and flora would evolve in the future. This is one of the animals that inhabit my future Australia.

ALSO ON TUMBLR: [link]

Description
Millions of years into the future, Australia has become a much drier continent. Due to human-accelerated climate change, rainfall was reduced across much of the continent, leading to the spread of eucalypt woodlands and plains populated by hardy grasses. This new environment has in turn caused bushfires to increase in intensity and abundance. Here, the most common grazers are various species of kangaroos and wallabies, as their ancestors had the speed to escape the flames. Though these animals initially had no major predators (their last predator, humans, having died out ages ago), nature abhors a vacuum, so it was only a matter of time before predatory animals evolved to feed on the new grazers.

The top predator of the future Australian woodlands and grasslands is not a mammal, but a reptile. As reptiles require less water than mammals, they were able to weather the climate change better. Subsequently, they dominate the ecosystems of future Australia; this is especially true for the predatory goannas. The most widespread future goannas are the swift monitors, which developed a more upright stance that proved advantageous for hunting the fast-moving kangaroos and for escaping fires.

Pictured above is the eastern swift monitor, a 3m long lizard that inhabits open woodlands. Though too large to climb trees as an adult, the young are almost entirely arboreal, subsisting on a diet of insects and small mammals.

So there’s been this series on the news about how climate change will affect Australia (basically, it’ll get much drier and hotter), and it got me thinking about how the fauna and flora would evolve in the future. This is one of the animals that inhabit my future Australia.

ALSO ON TUMBLR: [link]