Southeast Asia's tropical forests owe their rich biodiversity to a tiny fragment of Earth's crust that split from what is now northwestern Australia roughly 150 million years ago, a new study reports.

The fragment transported hundreds of flowering species and a flourishing collection of other ancient plants north across the prehistoric Tethys Ocean, the research reveals. The findings contradict previous theories that the fragment originated closer to what is now Southeast Asia and that Southeast Asia's tropical forests evolved sometime after the extinction of the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago.