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The New Guinea challenge: development and conservation in societies of great cultural and biological diversity : the conservation atlas; An amazing island; 100 Million years of earth history; mixing of the floras; meeting of the faunas; biophysical environments; Ecological communities; Biodiversity and Endemism; Culture and Politics

 CSIRO Publishing
 Land  Culture and Heritage  Biodiversity

The history of New Guinea started about 130 million years
ago with the break-up of the great southern landmass called
Gondwana. The Australian continental plate then drifted
northwards somewhat isolated from other lands and carrying
a unique collection of plants and animals. The present form of
New Guinea developed as the leading edge of the Australian
plate crumpled on impact with a complex of smaller plates
and volcanic islands near the equator. Much of New Guinea
formed far to the east in the Pacific Ocean before being