Australia's unique flora and fauna.
The Australian mainland has been isolated from other continents for a long time, starting from the Cretaceous period (about 135 million years ago). Nowhere else can you find such diversity, which is rarely found on other continents, so Australia is often referred to as a "sanctuary continent".
Australia's fauna and flora are truly unique.
Australian eucalyptus - the highest plant in the world is the most common in Australia. In the humid eastern parts of Australia you can see the regal eucalyptus. These are very tall trees: the eucalyptus reaches a height of 100 meters at the age of 350-400 years. There are known cases when trees grew up to 150-170 meters (very rare).
Eucalyptus forests in eastern Australia are home to a variety of species of Dorentes - large perennial grasses with thick underground stems. During drought, the roots of the dorantes shrink and pull the plant into the ground.
Bottled trees are common in Australia. The plant is very well adapted to heat, drought and powerlessness. From afar it looks like a giant bottle. Moisture accumulates in the trunk, which is wasted in drought.
Casuarina is another common plant in Australia. It is a strange kind of tree or shrub with thin falling shoots and no leaves. It looks like a horsetail, like a spruce in the shape of a crown. It is called the "Christmas tree". The thin shoots of casuarinas resemble the hair-like thin feathers of casuars, the big running birds that live next to casuarina. Casuarina is also called an "iron tree" because of the very strong wood of bright red color.
The emblem of the state of Western Australia is the kangaroo paw plant, which is also not found anywhere else in the world. The bizarre shape of the velvety flower really resembles an animal's paw.
Kaustis also has no leaves at all - up to a meter tall grass. Its stems are so twisted that it seems that a hairdresser has been working on these curls for a long time. These curly stems can be seen on Australia's sandy beaches, in the light eucalyptus forests.
Only in southwest Australia, where there is plenty of moisture, does the king grow in Australia. Thick, up to 9 metres high, the trunk of the kingstring is crowned with a rosette of thick leaves up to a metre long
Australia's fauna is also surprising.
There are no such animals in any other part of the world. Almost all of Australia's animals are endemic, which means they are not found anywhere else in the world. Scientists don't know about living rarities such as duckbill and snipe, even in the fossil state. They, like the oldest mammals, lay eggs, and then feed the hatching cubs with milk.
The species of marsupials are very diverse. Today, out of approximately 250 marsupial species, 180 live in Australia. Most Australian animals prefer to carry their cubs in their bags.
One such animal is the kangaroo. They have cubs born at a very early stage of development, the size of a walnut. Hanging on to his mother's hair, he gets to the bag on her stomach. In this bag he spends several months eating his mother's milk. Even the grown-up cubs, who can already move around on their own, hide in the moment of danger in the bag to the mother.
The koala marsupial bear is very pretty. It looks like a distant bear, rather it is a teddy bear, almost a teddy bear no more than 80 centimeters tall. Koala lives on trees. The cubs usually sit on their mother's back, clinginging to her hair. Sailors have repeatedly tried to bring koala to their homes in another country. But these cute animals have always starved to death: they eat only young eucalyptus shoots. They are night animals. As darkness falls, they are animated and begin to eat. Their whole lives are spent sleeping and eating.
The continent is home to marsupial ants, possums, badgers, wombats that resemble marmots, and even marsupials and marsupials. Only 125 species of marsupials.
Northern Australia is home to 2.5-metre-long ravenous lizards. They look like land crocodiles. However, many of them can swim pretty well. All of them climb and some even jump. Their main occupation: lie in the sun, eat, drink very little.
In Australia, there are still many species of lizards, such as milkfish, yellow-lizard, chameleon.
Australia's most common bird, the ostrich emus, lives in the continent's semi-deserts. Ostriches do not fly, but can run up to 50 kilometers per hour. Australian farmers have to fence their plots with metal nets, as ostriches trample on the plots.
There are also many other birds in Australia: black swans, wavy parrots, birds of paradise, lyrebirds and huts.
Most rare animals are collected in national parks in Australia. The most significant are Kostyushko National Park, 50 kilometres from Canberra and Great Victoria Desert in the desert in the centre of the country.