The climate in Southeast Asia and the newly formed Malay Archipelago remained much warmer and wetter than in Australia, which had become cold and dry. The new model revealed that the changing climate did not affect all species equally. 6 weird animals that evolution came up with The animal kingdom is full of cheats, and it could be a driving force in evolution The main climatic changes at the time were not caused by the movements of the continents themselves but rather by how they impacted Earth's oceans. Results showed Asian species were much better suited for living in the Malay Archipelago at the time. The model factored in the dispersal ability, ecological preferences and evolutionary relatedness of more than 20,000 species found on either side of the Wallace Line. In the new study, published July 6 in the journal Science, researchers used a computer model to simulate how animals were impacted by the climatic effects triggered by the continental mash-up. (Image credit: London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company)īut in the last few years, a new theory has emerged: Researchers now believe that the uneven distribution of species across the Wallace Line was caused by extreme climate change resulting from tectonic activity around 35 million years ago, when Australia broke away from Antarctica and crashed into Asia, birthing the Malay Archipelago.
Alfred Russel Wallace pictured in London in 1896.
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