During the Jurassic (208 - 146 m.y.a) all super-families present today had developed and many families of beetles had developed their present day appearance. 200 mill years ago splits Pangaea into Gondwana and Laurasia. India drifts toward asia.

In 1973 was a mysterious beetle discovered, in a high altitude rainforest in Queensland, Australia. It was a single male of Sphaenognathus, this genus was known only from the neotropical region. This male was described as Australognthus queenslandicus in 1993. Also in 1973, in Rockhampton, 950km away from the first location, a female Sphaenognatus was found.
30 years later, after the catch of a pair in 1996 this species was discribed as Sphaenognathus munchowae (Moore & Monteith, 2004). Because of only minor differences to the Sphaenognathus species from South America, restricted to the male sex, the two species are interpreted as being Gondwana relicts.

Their distribution after the breakup of Gondwana. Beetles were isolated on separate continents, where they evolved independently into new (but related) Beetle groups.

150 million years ago Australia and Southamerica were part of the southern supercontinent of Gondwana.
Map showing Gondwanan with probable distribution of Gondwana-Beetles.

The ancestor of Sphaenognathus may widely distributed in the extratropical area of Gondwana. Due to the continental drift and the subsequent fragmentation of Gondwana, the fragments are believed to have retained until our days microhabitats of the initial Gondwanan ecosystem. The establishment and evolution of the present-day Sphaenognathus species was apparently shaped by changes in the geology, climate and flora of of Australia and South-America. The habitat of Sphaenognathus in Australia is located on the largest and highest of many isolated plateaus representing fragments of the original flat terrain. These plateaus have cool and wet clima, the surrounding lowland is hot and dry. S. munchowae lives in areas with dense populations of eucalyptus trees and the high rainfall. S.queenslandicus can be found in high altitude rain forest in Queensland.