important features of australasia. faunal diversity of Australia, Zealand and new guinea. endemic species.

1. IN THE NAME
OF ALLAH,
THE MOST
MERCIFUL
AND THE
MOST
GRACIOUS

2. AUSTRALASIAN FAUNAL DIVERSITY
Filza Ghafoor
M.Phil. Zoology

3. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Faunal diversity of Australia
• Faunal diversity of New Zealand
• Faunal diversity of New Guinea
• References

4. Introduction
• Australasia is a term used to describe a region
within Oceania.
• The French term “Océanie”.
• Océanie from the Latin word Oceanus.
• The term Oceania is used because, unlike the other
continental groupings, it is the ocean that links the parts
of the region together.
Conrad Malte-brun 1812

5. Australasia
Australasia is derived from the Latin for “South of
Asia"
Australasia includes
–Australia
–New Zealand
–The Island of New Guinea
Charles de Brosses (1756)

6. Australia
Australia, being part of the Indo-Australian plate, is the
lowest, flattest, and oldest landmass on Earth and it has
had a relatively stable geological history.

8. New Zealand
The geology of New Zealand is noted for its volcanic
activity, earthquakes and geothermal areas because of its
position on the boundary of the Australian Plate and
Pacific Plates.

9. New Guinea
New Guinea is an island to the north
of Australia, but south of the equator.

11. Faunal Diversity of Australia
The fauna of Australia consists of a huge variety of
animals;
• 83% of mammals,
• 89% of reptiles,
• 24% of fish and insects and
• 93% of amphibians that inhabit the continent
are endemic to Australia.

12. HIGH LEVEL ENDEMISM
• This high level of endemism can be attributed to the
continent's long geographic isolation, tectonic
stability, and the effects of an unusual pattern of
climate change on the soil and flora over geological
time.
• The Wallace Line

13. Mammals
• A total of 379 species of mammals
• 357 indigenous species
• 22 introduced

14. Monotremes
• Two of the five living species of monotreme occur in
Australia:
• the platypus
• the short-beaked echidna.

15. Marsupials
The carnivorous marsupials, order Dasyuromorphia,
»Tasmanian devil
»four species of quoll or native cats
»marsupial mice
• marsupial omnivores
»bandicoots and bilbies
• herbivorous marsupials, order Diprotodontia
»Vombatiformes
»Phalangerida

17. Placental Mammals
two orders:
• order Chiroptera
• order Rodentia
• old endemics and new endemics
• dingo
• order Cetacea
• dugong

19. Birds
• Australia and its territories are home to around 800 species of
bird; 45% of these are endemic to Australia.
• flightless ratites
• megapodes
• order Psittaciformes
• Kookaburra
• passerines

20. • Relatively recent colonists from Eurasia are swallows
larks, thrushes, sunbirds, and some raptors, including
the large wedge-tailed eagle.
• About 200 species of seabird live on the Australian
coast
• The little penguin is the only species of penguin that
breeds on mainland Australia.

22. Amphibians and Reptiles
• four families of native frogs and one introduced toad.
• two species of crocodile.
• six species of sea turtle
• without any living species of land tortoise
• Australian snakes belong to seven families
• 26 species of goanna
• more than 700 species of lizards
• 450 species of skink

24. Fish
• More than 5000 species of fish inhabit Australia's
waterways; of these, 24% are endemic.
• Two families of freshwater fish have ancient origins
• Salamanderfish
• exotic freshwater fish species
• mosquitofish
• venomous fish

25. Invertebrates
• Of the estimated 200,000 animal species in Australia,
about 96% are invertebrates.
• 1,275 described species and subspecies of ant
• 78 spider families
• seven species of freshwater crab
• the Tasmanian giant crab

26. Faunal Diversity of New Zealand
 before the arrival of humans, less than 900 years ago, the country was mostly free of mammals
 Kakapo
 Of the 245 species of birds from the greater New Zealand 174 were endemic, roughly 71%. Of
these, about 32% of the genera were endemic.
 several species of bat, and several dozen marine mammal species
 short-tailed bats
 No agamas or iguanas
 lizards are represented by geckos and skinks,
 The tuatara
 Frogs

27. Endemism
• 70% of all native terrestrial and freshwater birds
• All bats
• All native amphibians
• All reptiles
• 90% of freshwater fish
• 90% of insects and mollusks
• 75% of marine mollusks alone
• New Zealand also has two sub-species of endemic
cetaceans, Hector's dolphin and its close relative Maui's
dolphin.

28. Invertebrates
• New Zealand's terrestrial invertebrate community
displays strong Gondwanan affinities.
• over a thousand species of snail,
• Grasshoppers and beetles.
• fewer than 12 species of ant.
• the wetas

29. Faunal Diversity of New Guinea
• As the world's largest and highest tropical island, New
Guinea occupies less than 0.5% of world's land surface,
yet supports a high percentage of global biodiversity.
• 4,642 vertebrate species
• about 8% of the recognized world vertebrates
• an estimated 4% of the world's lizards and mammals, to
about 10% of the world's fish species.

30. Mammals
• all extant subclasses of mammal:
monotremes, placentals and marsupials
• largest number of monotreme species of any land mass,
with only one species absent: the platypus
• marsupial fauna consisting of the three orders:
Dasyuromorphia, Peramelemorphia and Diprotodontia.
• native placental mammals are solely represented by
the rodents and bats.

32. Monotremes and Marsupials
• Tachyglossidae
• four species of echidnas in two genera
• lacks large predators
• carnivorous marsupials are insectivorous
• bronze quoll
• The cuscus, Phalangeridae
• tree-kangaroos
• sugar glider

33. Placental Mammals
• 29 genera are native to New Guinea
• bats comprising six families
• The wild boar (Sus scrofa)
• The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is
closely related to the Australian dingo.
• Three species of deer have been
introduced to New Guinea.
• Canis lupus hallstromi

34. Birds
• 79 families and approximately 730 species; eight Endemic
Bird Areas with 320 endemic bird species
• classified into four groups:
– breeding land and freshwater species,
– seabirds,
– migrants from the north,
– migrants and vagrants from Australia and New Zealand
• flightless cassowaries
• The parrots with 46 species, a seventh of the world's total
• forty-five species of pigeons
• The best-known family in New Guinea is the Paradisaeidae

35. Amphibians and Reptiles
• over 320 described species,
• restricted to those of the order Anura with six families
• Tree frogs are the most diverse family of frogs in New Guinea
with over 100 species
• four extant orders
• squamates, represent the largest group, with approximately 300
described species
• 100 described species of snakes

36. Fish
about 375 species of fishes are known from freshwater
habitats in New Guinea. Of these, 217 are strictly
freshwater and 149 are endemic to New Guinea.