Fig. 3.2.

A topographic map of New Guinea. Note the high, snow-capped mountains of the central Highlands, reaching more than 4 km high. With a range of rainforest types and also savanna, New Guinea remains mostly unexplored by scientists. Its dark, mysterious forests surely contain many new species of plants and animals, including carnivorous marsupials. The small knob of green at the bottom of the map is the northern tip of Queensland, the closest part of the Australian landmass, just a couple of hundred kilometres away. In the last few million years during low sea level intervals, rafts of carnivorous marsupials periodically moved north from Australia into New Guinea, perhaps seeking refuge in its warmer, wetter forests. Source: Sadalmelik/Wikimedia Commons.