mainly the zoogeography divided 6 areas.in this present contain basic idea of zoogeography realms and mainly focus on Australian zoogeography realms

3. Introduction
 Zoogeographical realms : Based on the faunal peculiarity &
the pattern of animal distribution , the earth surface can be
divided into several megafaunal zones .
 The term “realm” was first proposed by Lydekker
 He divided earth’s surface into 3 realms
1. Arctogaea
2. Notogaea
3. Neogaea

4.  Arctogaea is the largest division which includes the
continuous land mass of northern hemisphere
 Arctogaea is further subdivided into 4 regions
1. Palaearctic
2. Nearctic
3. Ethiopian
4. Oriental regions
 Notogaea includes Australia
 Neogaea includes South America

5. Sclater (1867) : six geographical region
based mainly distribution of birds
1. Palearctic region : consist Europe , temperate regions of Asia &
the northern temperate part of Africa lying north of atlas
mountains.
2. Ethiopian or western palaeotropical region : consist of Africa &
southern Arabia .
3. Indian or middle palaeotropical region : consist of tropical Asia
& the associated continental islands.

6. 4. Australian or eastern palaeotropical region : consist of
Australia , New Guinea & Tasmania.
5. Nearctic or North American regions : consist of north
America , north to central Mexico .
6. Neotropical or south American region : consist of south
& central America & southern Mexico.

7. Zoogeographic realms
Largely based on Wallace’s analysis of the ranges of families of mammals

8. Alfred Russel Wallace in his famous work “Geographical
Distribution of Animals (1876)
 Today the widely accepted system of zoogeographical
classification is that of Wallace
 Six realms
1. Palaearctic region
2. Nearctic region
3. Neotropical region
4. Ethiopean region
5. Oriental region
6. Australian region

9. Faunal Regions
PalearcticNearctic
Neotropical Ethiopian Oriental Australian

11. Geographical & Climatic features
 This region consist of Australia , New guinea , Tasmania &
Indonesia islands
 Some authors include New Zealand also in this region and call
the region Australasia , instead of Australia
 The region is a mixture of tropical and temperate zones.
 Northern part --- large tropical region
 Southern part---- temperate region

14.  Australia , New Zealand & New Caledonia are all portions of the ancient
supercontinent of Gondwana
 Which started to break into smaller continents in the Cretaceous era ,
130-65 million year ago
 New Zealand broke away first , more than 80 million years ago
 Australia finally broke apart from Antarctica about 45 million year ago.

15. Australia moved northward to desert latitude , the
continents become hotter & drier
As a result new drought – tolerant and fire resistant flora ,
dominated by Eucalyptus , Casuarina , Acacia , Grasses
and Scrubs
Presently , Australia is the smallest , the driest and the
flattest ( lowest in elevation ) continent.

16. Faunal characteristics
 From a zoological point of view , Australia is a distinct region with
a common evolutionary history and very unique animals .
 Some of these animals are common to the entire area , others
specific to particular parts but sharing a common ancestry .
 Australia & New Guinea are distinguished by their marsupial
mammals , including Kangaroos , possums and Wombats .
 The last remaining monotreme mammals , the echidnas & the
platypus are endemic to Australia .

17. Sub - regions
Australian region is further subdivided into three sub regions
1. Austro- Malayan sub region (islands of Malayan
Archipelago , New Guinea and Solomon islands )
2. Australian sub region ( Australia and Tasmania ) :
3. Polynesian sub region ( islands of Polynesia and
sandwich islands )