Ancestors of most Australian lizards and snakes, including some of the world's deadliest species, migrated from Asia to the southern continent as early as 30 million years ago, a study has found.
About 85 per cent of more than 1,000 snake and lizard species in Australia descended from creatures that floated across waters from Asia to Australia, researchers said.
The study led by The Australian National University (ANU) helps explain how Australia has become home to about 11 per cent of the world's 6,300 reptile species - the highest proportion of any country around the world.
"Around 30 million years ago it appears that the world changed, and subsequently there was an influx of lizard and snakes into Australia," said Paul Oliver from the ANU Research School of Biology.
"We think this is linked to how Australia's rapid movement north, by continental movement standards, has changed ocean currents and global climates," said Oliver, who led the study published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The researchers conducted the study using animal tree- of-life data combined with empirical evidence and simulations.
The origins for reptiles contrast with other famous Australian animal groups including marsupials and birds, which include many more species descended from ancestors that lived on Gondwana, a super continent that included Australia, Antarctica, South America, Africa and Madagascar.
The study found that the immigration of reptiles into Australia was clustered in time, Oliver said.
"The influx of lizards and snakes into Australia corresponds with a time when fossil evidence suggests animal and plant communities underwent major changes across the world," he said.
"The movement of Australia may have been a key driver of these global changes," said Oliver.
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