REGIONAL BIOGEOGRAPHY
Terrestrial Zoogeography
[The taxa listed are 'characteristic' not endemic unless so listed. Often they occur in more than a
single region
The distributions given here are for modern distributions and do not take into account areas
where the group is now extinct]
REALM
REGION
Subregion
I. ARCTOGAEA
A. PALAEARCTIC: Eurasia including Iceland, Canary Islands, North Africa, Korea and
Japan)
Mammals: 28 families – 4 shared with Nearctic and 4 with Ethiopian.
Two endemic families: Spalacidae and Seleviniidae – both myomorph rodents
Birds: 69 breeding families, one endemic family - Prunellidae
Reptiles: few – no endemic families
Amphibians: many urodeles
Fish: Dominant family is carp (shared with Nearctic and Ethiopian),
salmon, pike, perch, sticklebacks
Subregions: European; Mediterranean; Siberian; Manchurian
B. NEARCTIC; North America (Including Florida and California peninsulas),
Greenland and the Mexican Plateau
Mammals: 4 families shared with Palaearctic, 4 with Neotropical. Four endemic families
3 rodents (pocket gophers, pocket mice, sewellel) and the pronghorn
Birds: 1 endemic family Meleagrididae – Wild turkey
Reptiles: Snapping and musk turtles and terrapins, garter and rattlesnakes,
gila monster endemic
Amphibians: ambystomid axolotl, Ascaphus – a primitive anuran
(related to Liopelma of New Zealand)
Fish: Holostean garpike and bowfin, Bass restricted to North America.
Subregions: California; Central Mountains; Eastern; Subarctic
C. PALAEOTROPICAL
1. Ethiopian Africa, south of the Sahara
Mammals: 14 endemic families – no cervids or ursids
Birds: 9 endemic families e.g. ostrich, Guinea fowl, secretary bird
Fish: lungfish – Protopterus, also cichlids, mormyrids and polypterids
Subregions: East African; West African; South African; Mascarene
2. Oriental
Mammals: 9 endemic genera, e.g. Panda, flying lemurs (also in Mascarene), gibbons
Birds: 2 endemic families
Reptiles: 1 endemic family, Gavials
Fish: Catfishes and carps common
Subregions: Indian; Ceylonese; Indo-Chinese; Malayan
II NEOTROPICAL
NEOTROPICAL: South and Central America and the Antilles
Mammals: 32 families excluding bats; 16 endemic families, 1 endemic (almost) order edentata
Birds: 2 endemic orders = 50% of the families are endemic, 86 families
Reptiles: Anacondas; Caimans are endemic
Amphibians: Mostly Anurans
Fish: Lungfish is Lepidosiren, Characins, Gymnotids
Subregions: Chilean mountains; Brazilian forest; Mexican coastal lowlands;
West Indian
III AUSTRALIAN
AUSTRALIAN: Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania (not New Zealand)
Mammals:9 families (8 are endemic (only 1 is placental) 6 marsupial families and 2
monotreme families
Birds: 58 families 15 are endemic e.g. Cassowaries, Bowerbirds
Reptiles: 1 endemic turtle
Amphibians: No urodeles, no toads
Fish: Lungfish is Neoceratodus; primary division freshwater fishes generally absent