The evolution of Australian rainforest faunas and the implications of continuing climate change

澳大利亚的雨林动物和生态系统已经进化了数百万年，但我们通常只使用最近200年的时间来评估将影响它们未来的变化——这个时间间隔太短，无法区分谱系健康或社区反应的短期扰动和长期趋势。我们的多学科团队建议从汀加马拉、里弗斯利和罗克汉普顿这些壮观的国家自然宝藏化石沉积物中记录的5500万年对降雨和其他气候变化的反应中学习，以评估未来环境变化的可能影响，并为雨林社区制定有效的长期保护策略提供信息。

Australia's rainforest animals and ecosystems have been evolving for millions of years yet we routinely use only the last 200 years to assess changes that will affect their future - far too short a time interval to distinguish short-term perturbations from long-term trends in lineage health or community response. Our multidisciplinary team proposes to learn from 55 million years of response to rainfall and other climate change documented by the spectacular national, natural treasures in the fossil deposits of Tingamarra, Riversleigh and Rockhampton, to assess probable impacts of future environmental change and inform development of effective, long-term conservation strategies for rainforest communities.