Daintree possum may be Australia's polar bear.

Here James Cook University climate scientist Professor  Steve Turton  talks about the disappearance of upland habitat which is the home of the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum.

Scientists dubbed the "white-form" of this species "Australia's polar bear" a few years ago when it almost disappeared thanks to a heatwave. 

Read an old news report about scientists fears in 2008  

This possum - Professor Turton shows the white-form of the lemuroid ringtail possum in this video - lives in the highest, coolest regions of Queensland's Daintree Rainforest near Cairns. 

But it is an endangered species because its cool habitat is in danger of disappearing if the oceans continue warming. 

In the dry season, this little guy survives by licking the water off leaves which precipitates from "cloud forests".

But if these cloud forests disappear the Daintree's lifecycle will change. 

Cloud forests or mists form over the oceans normally in the dry season and condense onto the forest canopy as they drift inland. 

This important water source keeps many plants and animals alive in this area - not just the possums.

On a technical tour of the Daintree for scientists attending the CSIRO's Greenhouse 2011 Forum in April, Professor Turton explained how the Daintree is actually the remains of a Gondwanaland rainforest which covered most of what eventually dried out and became the arid Australian continent. So it is quite possible for this little bit of Australian rainforest to disappear.

The Great Barrier Reef is what is the remains of a massive, ancient reef.

Tectonic movements of the Earth's crust pushed against each other and forced parts of the reef upwards to form this region's high, cool climes which now face extinction through climate change.

As the climate warms, the rainforest ecology will change again, perhaps taking with it the lemuroid ringtail possum and plants that do not grow anywhere else in the world but here.

Professor Turton mentioned that some plants here have survived since the times of Gondwanaland. See the dispersal of Gondwanaland in this animation.

Explore Gondwanaland and the concept of Continental Drift with this Exploratorium Flash animation.

Wentworth Intermediate School teacher Deborah Tewhey has shared teaching resources on a great website called Forces of Nature that includes Tectonics and Pangaea or Gondwanaland.

Read this information sheet on the Lemuroid Ringtail Possum.

_ Lisa Yallamas  ( Contribute to the Community Climate Gauge )