ZOOGEOGRAPHY AND PALAEONTOLOGY

TOPIC: THE AUSTRALIAN REGION

 ECOZONES
• Ecozones or biogeographic realm represent large areas of the
earth's surface;

where plants and animals developed in relative isolation

over long periods of time
And separated from one another by geological features
such as;
 Oceans
 Broad deserts
 High mountain ranges
That formed barrier to plant and animal migration
 Ecozones Of The World
•ECOZONES are characterized by;
the evolutionary history of the plants and animals
they contain

•The patterns of plant and animal distribution in the world's

ecozones was shaped by;
the process of plate tectonics

•WWF Ecozones:
Pielou (1979) and Udvardy (1975)
Team of biologists convened by the WWF developed a system of
eight biogeographic realms
WWF ECOZONES
 Ecozones of the world along with their areas
Palearctic 54.1 mil. km² (including the bulk of Eurasia and
North Africa)
Nearctic 22.9 mil. km² (including most of North America)
Afrotropical 22.1 mil. km² (including Sub-Saharan Africa)
Neotropical 19.0 mil. km² (including South America and the
Caribbean)
Australasia 7.6 mil. km² (including Australia, New Guinea,
and neighboring islands). The northern boundary
of this zone is known as the Wallace line.
Indo-Malaya 7.5 mil. km² (including Afghanistan and Pakistan,
the South Asian subcontinent and Southeast Asia)
Oceania 1.0 mil. km² (including Polynesia, Fiji and
Micronesia)
Antarctica 0.3 mil. km² (including Antarctica).
THE AUSTRALIAN REGION
 In 1876: Alfred Russel Wallace
• Published a classical work
‘The Geographical Distribution Of Animals’
• 6 zoogeographical regions and their subdivisions were given by him
Australian Region As Described By Alfred Russell Wallace

SUBREGIONS
Austro-Malayan, Australian, Polynesian And New Zealand
 FACT SHEET:
• Extent covers Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania
and few of smaller islands of Indonesian
archipelago
• Area 7.6.mil.km²
• The imaginary boundary of this zone is known as Wallace
line (between Australian and Oriental region)
• Origin Indo-Australian Plate covering Australian-continental
plate
Landmass:
Aussie Facts!
7,617,730sq.km
Upon:
Indo-Australian plate
Bordered by:
Indian and pacific oceans
Seperation from Asia:
By Arafura and Timor seas
6th largest country in the
world
‘Island continent’
(due to its size and
isolation)
Possess huge variety of
animals
 Fact Sheet; Papua New Guinea
• Area 785,753km²
About 0.5% of Earth’s
surface
•Worlds’ 2nd largest
island
• Location
Australian region, south
west pacific
• Biodiversity;
Immense
As containing between
5-10% of the global
biodiversity of the planet
 THE WALLACE LINES
• Alfred Russell Wallace in 19th
century noticed this clear
dividing range during his
travels to East India
• Biogeographic Wallace lines are
visible when Continental shelf
contours are examined
• Boundary that seperates:
Ecozones of Asia and Wallacea
(transitional zone b/w Asia and
Australia)
 On its West: animals related to
Asiatic fauna
 On its East: mix of species of
Asiatic and Australian origin
• Lydekker’s Line:
boundary that
separates the eastern
edge of wallacea and
the Australian region

•Weber’s Line:
A line of faunal
balance
Given by
Dr.Max Weber in 1904
Thought to divide 2
faunae better than
Wallace's line
 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE
AUSTRALIAN REGION
• Australia, New Zealand are all portions of the ancient
supercontinent of Gondwana
• Started to break into smaller continents in the Cretaceous
period
• New Zealand broke away first, more than 80 million years
ago
• Australia finally broke free from Antarctica about 45 million
years ago.
• During the ice ages, sea levels were lower, exposing the
continental shelf that links these islands to one another and to
Asia
• This linkage allowed Asian land animals to inhabit these
islands.
• The present distribution of Australasian plants and animals is;
a result of the geologic history of its land masses
• Land masses in the ecoregion are;
fragments of the ancient continent of Gondwana
• A number of smaller islands are of;
more recent volcanic or tectonic origin
• New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania, collectively known as
SAHUL or MEGANESIA
• North and east are the Pacific island groups of ;
Micronesia
Fiji
Polynesia
• The Island groups north and east of New Guinea and New
Caledonia including:
Bismarck Archipelago
Admiralty Islands
Solomon Island
Vanuatu
collectively known as East- Melanesian Islands

Micronesia

Melanesia

Polynesia
Australasia
Australian Region
 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
• As Australia moved north into the desert latitude
the continent became hotter and drier
soils became poorer and leached off nutrients
• Australia is the driest continent ;
flattest (lowest in elevation) continent
partly tropical and temperate in climate.
• The Australian continent contain;
hot and arid plains and deserts
• New Guinea and northern Australia are;
tropical with high temperature in summers.
• Australia has opposite seasons as compared to rest of the
world
It Mainly Consists Of The Hot, Arid Plains
And Deserts
Topography Of The Australian Region
 Physical Features Such As Important
Mountain And Deserts Shown On The Map
 FAUNA AND FLORA OF AUSTRALIAN
REGION
• From a biological point of view;
 Australasia is a distinct region with a
common evolutionary history
 With great many unique plants and animals

• The long isolation of Australasia;

 allowed it to evolve relatively independently
 Makes it home to many;
unique families of plants and animals
 FLORA OF AUSTRALIAN REGION

• New Guinea and Australia have forests of eucalyptus and

mixed hard wood forests and with tropical rain forests.
• Many parts are dominated by;
Eucalyptus
Casuarinas
Acacia trees
grasses and scrub
(where the rainfall was too scarce to support trees)

Casuarina Eucalyptus
s
In some parts Acacia and tropical and subtropical savannahs
type vegetation is found.

Acacia Savannah
Deciduous Forests Covers Much Of This Region
Fauna Of Australian Region
 ZOOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
• The Australian region is characterized;
 by the absence of higher placental mammals
presence of variety of primitive forms

• It is referred to as ‘Veritable Museum Of Archaic Fauna’

• It has such a strange archaic fauna because of its prolonged

physical isolation…..
provided refuge for its primitive forms
prevented the higher and more aggressive placental
mammals from reaching this lone continent

• This region has no land connection with any other region.

• The Australian region has;
 134 families of terrestrial vertebrates
 of which 30 families are unique

FAMILIES NUMBER OF FAMILIES

Mammals 8
Birds 17
Reptiles 3
Amphibians 2

• Primitive forms include;

 Mammals such as Monotremes (egg-laying mammals)
 Marsupials (pouched mammals are present as unique
fauna of this region)
Faunic Beauty Of Australian Region
 Monotremes
• Monotremes from Greek word mono=single, trema= hole
• Occurrence;
 only surviving examples are indigenous to Australia
and New Guinea
• Characters;
 lay eggs
 Warm blooded
 High metabolic rates
 Hairy bodies
 Produce milk to feed their young ones
 Have single bone in their lower jaw
 Provide parental care
 The only surviving example
Duck-billed Platypus of monotremes are;

Duck-billed Platypus
Spiny Echidna

Spiny Echidna
 Marsupials
• Pouched mammals (an infraclass of mammals)
• Occurrence;
 nearly 70% of the 334 extant species live in
Australia and New Guinea and relative islands
• Characters;
 Give birth to young ones
 Extremely short gestation period
(about 4-5 weeks)
 Infant marsupial known as ‘Joey’
 blind, furless miniature newborn crawls to pouch
 Gets nutrition there until furred and old enough
 EXAMPLES

Possum
Kangaroo Koala Bear
•Marsupials are an excellent
example of parallel radiation

•The most conspicuous and

widespread marsupials are; Kangaroos
Kangaroos
Wallabies
Bandicoots
Phalangers
Wombats etc.

•There are all kinds of

marsupials:
Arboreal,fossorial,herbivores,
carnivores,insectivorous etc.
Parma Wallaby Western Grey Kangaroo
 Phalanger

Southern hairy nosed Wombat Golden Bandicoot

• Remaining:
100 Species Are Found In South America
13 In Central America
1 In North America
• Discontinuous Distribution of marsupials among Australian
and Neotropical region is present
• It can result from:
Unfavorable ecological conditions
Competition with highly advanced forms
Destruction of a former land bridge
Ability to cross barriers and establish separate
population
• A 2010 analysis of Retrotranposon insertion sites in the
DNA of various marsupials has confirmed all living
marsupials have;
South American ancestors
• 2 divisions of Marsupialia i.e.
American marsupials
Australian marsupials
• Opossums is the term properly used to refer to the American
Species while possum is confined to Australian marsupials
• Monito del Monte only one specie of order Microbiotheria
is living in South America
 BIRD FAUNA
• Bird fauna is;
 very peculiar
also very unique
• Ten families are unique;
 include those of flightless birds
(emus and cassowaries)
Honey-eaters
Birds of paradise are all commonly
found
• While no;
Pheasants, Woodpeckers, Barbets, Finches which are so
abundant in other regions
 Painted Honey-eater

Honey-eaters
• PARROTS are so diverse that they are recognized as 3 exclusive
subfamilies;
 Cockatoos
 Lories
 Pygmy parrots

Palm cockatoo
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Chattering Lory Lories
Pygmy Parrot
 Rainbow Lorikeet The Great Aussie Galahs

Blue Ringed Parakeets

Australian Electus Parrot Australian King Parrot
 Hyacinth Macaw Bourke's Parrot

Black Headed Caique Cape Parrot Hawk Headed Parrot

Edward’s Fig Parrot

Common Lyre Bird

Menura superba
Satin Bower Birds

Trogon
Red-naped Trogon Red Bird Of Paradise

Tooth-billed Pigeon Emus

Southern Cassowary Kagu
 Cuckoo
Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Red Backed Kingfisher

 AMPHIBIAN FAUNA
• Amphibians are few!
Common toads are absent
Tree Frogs and common frogs are present
Tailed amphibia are absent

Torrent Tree Frogs Sunset Frog

 REPTILIAN FAUNA
•Australian reptiles are moderately varied…
•Only 2 families are exclusive to this region;

Carettochelydidae (Fly river turtles)

Pygopodidae (scale footed lizard)

Fly River Turtle Scale Footed Lizard

 Komodo Dragon Salt-water Crocodile

•Although there are 250 species of lizards but are small ones;

Among large lizards komodo dragon is notable

Crocodiles occur in tropical parts of the region
 Lung fish
• Fresh water fish fauna is very
poor
• Lung fishes found in rivers of
Queensland

• Mountain shrimp and Fresh

Water Mussel are also found

Mountain shrimp Trigonia (fresh water mussel)

•Some Interesting Facts About;
Australia
Papua New Guinea
AUSTRALIAN FAUNA
 The Coral Reef in Australia is home to great biodiversity
It is the world’s largest coral reef
It stretches over 2,000 km along coast of Queen's land and is an
important tourist attraction
 Fish At Coral Reef
Clown fish Wrasse Cod fish

A Dive In Coral Reef

Australia is the largest producer of wool
Sheeps out-number humans in Australia

Goat Sheeps
Koala bear and Eucalyptus are a remarkable pair of Australia
Bird Of Paradise Is The National Bird Of
Papua New Guinea
 AFFINITIES
(Importance)
• On the whole Australian region is characterized;
 by the presence of many primitive forms
• Australian fauna is remarkable for;
the poverty of its fresh water fish,amphibia and
reptiles
and the uniqueness of it mammals

• Some parts of fauna resemble Neotropical region

• But another part make up terrestrial reptiles, many birds and
placental mammals showing affinity with oriental region
• The Australian region has little in common with the
Ethiopian region
 HUMAN IMPACT
• The arrival of humans 50-60,000 years ago brought;
 dogs (dingos) to Australia, and pigs to New Guinea
• The arrival of the first humans coincided with the extinction
of much of the native mega fauna
• The arrival of Europeans brought;
 a whole host of new animals and plants, including
sheep, goats, rabbits and foxes, to Australasia
which have further disrupted the native ecologies
• A great many Australasian
plants and animals are presently endangered.

Dingo
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