About 3,000 plant species from 210 families are found in the Wet Tropics. Twelve out of the world's 19 families of primitive flowering plants grow here and within these families, there are least 50 species found only in the Wet Tropics.

	Green Tree Frog

While many of the plants in the rainforest have been around for millions of years, learn about ferns that have been around for much longer than that. Learn how the Area provides an unparalleled living record of the ecological and evolutionary processes that shaped the flora and fauna of Australia over the past 415 million years.

This area is home to about a third of Australia's 315 mammal species - 13 of these species are found nowhere else in the world. They include unique green possums, ringtail possums, fierce marsupial cats, rare bats, tree-kangaroos, a rat-kangaroo, a melomys and an antechinus. There are many spectacular insects to see in Australia's Tropical Rainforests.

To learn more about the mammals, reptiles, freshwater fish, birds, invertebrates and frogs and see some of the colourful forms of mushrooms and fungi that inhabit the rainforest floor of the World Heritage Area, go to the Wet Tropics Management Authority web site.