There Daintree Forestin Queensland in north-eastern Australia, is often referred to as the oldest rainforest in the worldwith an estimated age between 130 and 180 million years. Its history is lost in time: some species that inhabit it date back to supercontinent Gondwanaexisted hundreds of millions of years ago. Very rare plants, thousand-year-old ferns and primitive flowers live here, together with hundreds of endemic animals, such as the tree kangaroo and the southern cassowary. More than the age of the trees, Daintree is extraordinary for the continuity of its ecosystem, which has remained stable through glaciations and climate changes. Inserted between UNESCO World Heritage Sitesholds a unique biodiversity in the world, but the fragile balance of the forest is threatened by climate change, invasive species and tourism. To visit Daintree is to immerse yourself in a thousand-year-old ecosystem and understand how precious it is to protect this natural “time machine”.
There Daintree Forest extends beyond 1,200 kilometres squares in the north-east ofAustraliawithin the state of Queenslandand since 1988 it has been part of the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its exceptional biodiversity and the presence of very ancient phylogenetic lines of plants and animals.
According to several studies, in fact, the ecosystem and many of the species that inhabit it derive directly from ancestors widespread in the super continent Gondwanawhich existed between 660 and 180 million years ago. Not for nothing, this place hosts a heritage botanist unique in the world: here we can find all seven species of older ferns known and twelve (of the nineteen) primitive flowering plants still exist on Earth.
When the super continents of Laurasia and of Gondwana they separated to give life, after one very slow continental migrationto the planisphere as we know it today, a small part of those primitive ecosystems survived thanks to the climate tropical and stable of the Australian north-east, becoming the original nucleus of the Daintree forest.
The forest today is the habitat of more than three thousand species of plants and hundreds of endemic animals, which do not exist, that is, anywhere else on the planet. Among these we find several species of the genus Dendrolagus: kangaroos arboreal adapted to live in trees and widespread only in this region and in nearby rainforests New Guinea.
The forest is also home to 50% of Australia’s bird species, including the cassowary southernand around 12,000 different species of insects.
Research conducted by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) confirm that many phylogenetic lines present in this area date back to pre-Pleistocene times, demonstrating that the forest has maintained a stable ecosystem during the numerous climatic changes of the Earth’s geological history. The Daintree Forest, which sources say may have between 180 and 130 million yearsis therefore not ancient because the trees that characterize it are ancient, but it is considered among the oldest on the planet precisely by virtue of the continuity of its ecosystem. Although today it is protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sitethe forest preserves a fragile balance: climate change, invasive and alien species and tourist pressure put its ecosystem at risk.
