![Wallace03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Wallace03.jpg)
Zoogeography is the branch of the science of
biogeography that is concerned with geographic distribution (present and past) of
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.
As a multifaceted field of study, zoogeography incorporates methods of molecular biology, genetics, morphology,
phylogenetics
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...
, and
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to delineate evolutionary events within defined regions of study around the globe. Once proposed by
Alfred Russel Wallace, known to be the father of zoogeography, phylogenetic affinities can be quantified among zoogeographic regions, further elucidating the phenomena surrounding geographic distributions of organisms and explaining evolutionary relationships of taxa.
Advancements in molecular biology and theory of evolution within zoological research has unraveled questions concerning speciation events and has expanded phylogenic relationships amongst taxa. Integration of phylogenetics with GIS provides a means for communicating evolutionary origins through cartographic design. Related research linking phylogenetics and GIS has been conducted in areas of the southern Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific Oceans. Recent innovations in DNA bar-coding, for example, have allowed for explanations of phylogenetic relationships within two families of marine venomous fishes,
scorpaenidae and
tetraodontidae
Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...
, residing in the Andaman Sea. Continued efforts to understand species evolutionary divergence articulated in the geologic time scale based on fossil records for killifish (''Aphanius'' and ''Aphanolebias'') in locales of the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
and
Paratethys areas revealed climatological influences during the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
Further development of research within zoogeography has expanded upon knowledge of the productivity of South Atlantic ocean regions and distribution of organisms in analogous regions, providing both ecological and geographic data to supply a framework for the taxonomic relationships and evolutionary branching of benthic polychaetes.
Modern-day zoogeography also places a reliance on GIS to integrate a more precise understanding and predictive model of the past, current, and future population dynamics of animal species both on land and in the ocean. Through employment of GIS technology, linkages between abiotic factors of habitat such as topography, latitude, longitude, temperatures, and sea level can serve to explain the distribution of species populations through geologic time. Understanding correlations of habitat formation and the migration patterns of organisms at an ecological level allows for explanations of speciation events that may have arisen due to physical geographic isolation events or the incorporation of new refugia to survive unfavorable environmental conditions
Zoogeographic regions
Schmarda
Ludwig Karl Schmarda (23 August 1819 – 7 April 1908) was an Austrian naturalist and traveler, born at Olmütz, Moravia.
Early life and education
Schmarda was born at Olmütz where he attended the Grammar School and the Philosophical Course a ...
(1853) proposed 21 regions, while
Woodward proposed 27 terrestrial and 18 marine, Murray (1866) proposed 4, Blyth (1871) proposed 7, Allen (1871) 8 regions, Heilprin (1871) proposed 6, Newton (1893) proposed 6, Gadow (1893) proposed 4.
Philip Sclater
Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological ...
(1858) and
Alfred Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...
(1876) identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world used today:
Palaearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
,
Aethiopian (today
Afrotropic
The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...
),
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
(today
Indomalaya
The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia.
Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...
n),
Australasian,
Nearctic
The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface.
The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America ...
and
Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
.
Marine regionalization began with
Ortmann (1896).
In a similar way to
geobotanic
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...
divisions, our planet is divided in zoogeographical (or faunal) regions (further divided as provinces, territories and districts), sometimes including the categories Empire and Domain.
The current trend is to classify the floristic kingdoms of botany or zoogeographic regions of zoology as
biogeographic realm
A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms. They are subdivided into bioregions, which are further subdivided into ecoregions.
De ...
s.
Following, some examples of regionalizations:
Sclater (1858)
Creatio Palaeogeana
* I. Regio Palaearctica
* II. Regio Aethiopica
* III. Regio Indica
* IV. Regio Australiana
Creatio Neogeana
* V. Regio Nearctica
* VI. Regio Neotropica
Huxley (1868)
Huxley (1868) scheme:
* Arctogea
** Nearctic province
** Palaearctic province
** Ethiopian province
** Indian province
* Notogea
** Austro-Columbia province (= Neotropical)
** Australasia province (= Australian; Eastern Palaeotropical)
Wallace (1876)
* Palaearctic region
* Ethiopian region
* Oriental region
* Australian region
* Neotropical region
* Nearctic region
Trouessart (1890)
Scheme by Trouessart (1890):
[Trouessart, E. L. (1890). ''La géographie zoologique''. Bailliere, Paris]
* Arctic region
* Antarctic region
* Palearctic region
* Nearctic region
* Ethiopian region
* Oriental region
* Neotropical region
* Australian region
Darlington (1957)
First scheme:
* Realm Megagea (Arctogea): the main part of the world
** 1. Ethiopian Region: Africa (except the northern corner), with part of southern Arabia
** 2. Oriental Region: tropical Asia, with associated continental islands
** 3. Palearctic Region: Eurasia above the tropics, with the northern corner of Africa
** 4. Nearctic Region: North America, excepting the tropical part of Mexico
* Realm Neogea
** 5. Neotropical Region: South and Central America with the tropical part of Mexico
* Realm Notogea
** 6. Australian Region: Australia, with New Guinea, etc.
Second scheme:
* Climate-limited regions
** 1. Palearctic Region
** 2. Nearctic Region
* Main regions of the Old World tropics
** 3. Oriental Region
** 4. Ethiopian Region
* Barrier-limited regions
** 5. Neotropical Region
** 6. Australian Region
See also
*
Animal geographies Animal geography is a subfield of the nature–society/human–environment branch of geography as well as a part of the larger, interdisciplinary umbrella of human–animal studies (HAS). Animal geography is defined as the study of "the complex ent ...
*
Fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''Biota (ecology ...
*
Animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
*
Zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...
*
Léon Croizat
References
Bibliography
* Bodenheimer, F.S. (1935). ''Animal life in Palestine. An introduction to the problems of animal ecology and zoogeography''. L. Mayer: Jerusalem. 506 p.
* Ekman, Sven (1953). ''Zoogeography of the sea''. London, Sidgwick and Jackson. 417 p.
External links
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Biogeography