Granite outcrops of Western Australia

Rising abruptly from the surrounding landscape they create a variety of microhabitats for plants, and provide seasonal resources and refuge for a range of animals.

Granite outcrops in the state are ecologically complex and insular, often providing niches for ancient lineages of organisms that are relics of a wetter climate.

These niches include unfractured rock surface that is covered in biofilm, composed of cyanobacteria that give massive rockfaces a characteristic colour.

[3] Slabs of rock, split by exfoliation or cracked and pushed up to an A profile, form habitat that is cooler, damper, and secure for plant and animal species that are often specially adapted to the narrow environ.

[12][13] A number of animals are restricted to granite outcrops, including four species of reptile, the mygalomorph spider Teyl luculentus, and the larvae of the chironomid fly Archaeochlus.