
%0 Journal Article
%A Winter, J. W. 
%T Responses of Non-volant Mammals to Late Quaternary Climatic Changes in the Wet Tropics Region of North-eastern Australia
%J Wildlife Research
%D 1997/10/13
%V 24
%N 5
%P 493-511
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/WR96035
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WR96035 
%X It is generally recognised that the distribution of vertebrates in rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest of the Wet Tropics region of north-eastern Australia is profoundly influenced by the formation of two rainforest refugia at the height of Pleistocene glacial periods. Anomalies in the distribution of non-volant mammals indicate that other events may be equally important. In this paper, past geographical occurrence of non-volant mammals is examined by equating the mammals&#8217; known temperature tolerance with palaeoclimatic temperature zones. It is hypothesised that dispersal and vicariant phases taking place since the most recent glacial period have had a profound influence on current patterns of distribution. A major dispersal phase of cool-adapted species occurred after the glacial period, and continuous populations were subsequently fragmented into upland isolates by expansion of warm rainforest during the late post-glacial period. These upland isolates remain substantially unchanged to the present day. Species shared either with New Guinea or south-eastern Australia arrived in the region during the most recent post-glacial period. Clarification of periods of vicariance and dispersal provides a conceptual framework for testing relative divergences of populations within and between regions. 
