A Zoogeographical region with no land connection with any other region

Australian Region

Include Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, a few smaller islands of Malay Archipelago

New Zealand and Pacific Islands not included

Australian Region: Climate Partly Tropical and

Partly South-Temperate Northern part (North

Australia and New Guinea)…Lies in tropics with high summer temperature sand mainly Rain forest (called Scrub locally in Queensland).

Interior part…….mostly hot but dry

Southern part………Mainly Temperate

Australian Region: Climate New Guinea:

Tropical; mostly covered with rain forest

Areas of grassland and series of altitudinal vegetations on the mts.

South coast: areas of open eucalyptus woods

Australian Region: Climate Southern part…

Mainly Temperate

Eastern and South-eastern part well watered with open eucalyptus woods and some wetter, denser forest on the mountains.

Australian Region: Climate Southwestern

…moderately wet but cut off by deserts from the east. There are some fine forests of big trees in the southwest.

Tasmania.. ..Cool Temperate, and is partly wet and forested.

Australian Region: Mammals Most striking characteristics……its Paucity…..but what

it lacks in variety and no. of families, it make up in the uniqueness of many.

Apart from Bats, only 9 families of mammals…8 of these are unique.

Recent Introductions by Man from Palearctic………..Rabbits, Foxes, Rats, Mice.

Other introductions…..

dates back to prehistoric times…..

Dingo Dog and Pigs.

Dingo Dog

Australian: Mammals Nine families

Only one placental mammal fam.

Six Marsupials fam.

Two Monotremes fam.

Australian: Placental Mammals Only one placental mammal, the murid mouse fam.

Wide range in old world but australian murids are of distinct genera

Hydromyinae-water rats (False water rats-lack of webbing on the feet), an exclusive subfam.

Water Rat (Xeromys myoides)

Smoky mousePlains mouse

Australian: Marsupial Mammals Dominant mammal fauna- Marsupials

Six excl. fam.- none of which occur in New World (where other living marsupials lives)

In presence of a few placental (none of them carnivores)- marsupials become diverse and have taken to ways of life which in other parts of the world are followed by placentals.

There is a striking parallelism in superficial structures between some Australian mammals and their counterparts in other regions.

Parallel Radiation of Marsupials: Convergent Evolution

Resemblance

Paddle -shaped feet and strongly clawed fingers

In all superficial aspects

In all superficial aspects

In all superficial aspects

In all superficial aspects

In all superficial aspects

Similar predatory life

Fam. Notoryctidae

Extinct

OpossumsSquirrel

Placental Mammals Australian Mammals(Marsupials)

Resemblance

Rabbits and insectivores Fam. Peramelidae(Bandicoots, Bilbys)

In all superficial aspects

Large Rodents Phascolomidae, Wombats (Vombatus

ursinus)

In all superficial aspects

Ungulates Kangaroos and Wallabies Their herbivorous diet and speed of travel in open country

Parallel radiation of Marsupials Not perfect

No masupials bats, seals, or whales. Placental representatives of these orders occupy the air and seas of Australia

Australian Fur Seal Australian Fruit Bat/ Flying Fox

Australian-Monotreme Mammals Relationship with marsupials and placental v remote.

May have had a separate origin from reptiles after these had acquired hairs but had not yet lost their egg-laying habits.

Two Australian fam. Only living Monotremes (Excl.)

Duckbilled Platypuses

Echidnae or spiny- ant eaters

Owe their survival to:

their specialized ways of life

the absence of placental carnivores

Australian-Monotreme MammalsEchidnas/Spiny ant eater Duckbilled platypus

Active ant eater

Lay small leathery eggs

Mother incubate eggs in a small pouch

The young are fed with milk which seeps on to the fur from special pores on the underside of the mother

Semiaquatic

Lay small leathery eggs

Mother incubate eggs by curling around them

The young are fed with milk which seeps on to the fur from special pores on the underside of the mother

Australian Mammals-conclusion Only a few monotremes (Excl. subclass)

Many marsupials (6 excl. fam.)

Diverse rodents of fam. Muridae (O.W.)

Fruit bats (warm O.W.)

6 fam. of insectivorous bats (all occurring elsewhere)

Australian- Birds Does not equal mammals in peculiarity as vast

majority with a wide range

Trogons, Kingfisher, Hawks and Cuckoos together with pigeons and parrots (both of which reach their greatest diversity there).

Trogons Kingfisher

Hawk Cuckoos

Australian- Birds Many Australian Warblers (Malurinae)

Parrots-highly diverse with 3 excl. subfam.

Cockatoos

Lories

Pygmy parrots

Cockatoos

Lories

Pygmy Parrot

Warblers

Australian- Birds Four bird fam. Shared

with Oriental Region

Frogmouth

Wood Swallow

Flower peckers

Megapodes

Frogmouth

Wood swallowMegapodes

Flower peckers

Australian- Birds Some birds, which are abundant in O.R are not seen in

Australian region which include:

Pheasants

Finches

Barbets

Woodpeckers

Australian- Birds Ten unique fam. Of which, two flightless

Emus Cassowaries

Honey suckers Lyrebirds Bower birds Legendary bird of

paradise /bird of sun

Cassowaries

Bower bird Male

Bower bird Female Lyre bird

Honey Sucker

Bird of Paradise

Australian Birds- Conclusion Representatives of 58 fam on freshwater and land

Of these, 48 fam more or less widely distributed, over the world, or the tropics, or all or much of the Old World.

Proportion of Australian birds in exclusive fam. Is larger than in any other continental faunal region except the Neotropical

Australian -Reptiles Moderately varied with two excl. fam.

Constricting pythons and biting tiger snakes abundant

Constricting Python

Tiger snake

Australian -Reptiles Geckos, skinks, agamid lizards and varanid Komodo

Dragon- Varanus (warm O.W.),the largest of all lizards present.

Pygopodids excl. A Dibamus (O) in New guinea

Geckos

Skinks

Agamid Lizard

Komodo Dragon

Pygopodids Lizard

Dibamus

Australian -Reptiles Crocodiles in tropical parts of the region

Three fam. of turtles, of which one is uinque-(Carettochelys, excl. fam.) , one of which occurs in Oriental Region- a trionychidae (soft shell turtle) , and one in South America-Chelyid turtles (Side neck or Snake neck turtles)

Turtles shared with Neotropical region belong to chelyid fam. of side-necks. They have strikingly long necks and are aquatic.

Carettochelys, pig-nosed turtle

Soft Shell turtle

Snake neck turtle

Australian -Amphibians Few, Australia being the only region where common

toads are absent.

A few common frogs, hylid tree frogs (also found in New world and Palearctic but absent from Oritentalregion), leptodactylids (S.A. etc.), a few ranids (wide) and brevicipitids (warm world, subfam. nearly excl.)

No tailed amphibians

Australian -Fishes Freshwater fish fauna equally poor

Third lung fish, Neoceratodus found in the rivers of Queensland. It differ from other two lung fishes in the more obvious development of its lobed fins.

An Osteoglossid (O etc.)

Peripheral fishes

Overview Poverty of freshwater fish, amphibian, and reptiles

Uniqueness of mammals and birds

A few frogs, turtles and marsupials resembles South America

Terrestrial reptiles, many birds and placental mammals show close affinities with Oreintal Region.

Little in common with Ethiopian though both have lung fishes and side necks they don’t share the same fam. Of either of these groups.