Due to its isolation, Tasmania has animals and plants found no where else on earth. Some of these are famous, like the Tasmanian Devil, and others are less well known, like the only worm in the world with legs and other unique rain forest species.
Tasmania is richly populated with mammals, birds and frogs. Some mammals give birth to young in the usual way, but some lay eggs and some give birth to tiny partly formed young that live in the mother's pouch until they are fully formed.
Many mammals are nocturnal and not easy to spot in the wild. Whales, dolphins, seals and many kinds of shell and scale fish are found in the surrounding oceans.
Up to about 250 millions of years ago the world had just one huge super-continent call Pangaea. Animals and plants were able to move and intermix with one another.
About 200 million years ago this super-continent broke up into two continents (Laurasia and Gondwana).
About 60 million years ago Gondwana broke up into what was to later become South America, Africa, Antarctica, India and Australia.
Since then Australia has been isolated from the rest of the world by vast oceans. The animals and plants which were originally here no longer had contact with animals from other parts of the world. They evolved separately. That is why they are so different.
Australia has lots very unusual animals. About 95 percent of the mammals, 70 percent of the birds, 88 percent of the reptiles and 94 percent of the frogs are found nowhere else in the world.
Kangaroo
