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Lec 16 Neotropicalregion

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51 views22 pages

Lec 16 Neotropicalregion

Uploaded by

anasmrwt225
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ZOOGEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS

NEOTROPICAL
REGION

Subject: Zoology
Course Title:
Zoogeography
&
Paleontology
EXTENT
• The whole South America, most of Mexico &
West Indies

• Joined to Nearctic region by a land


brindge called Isthmus of Panama

• Separated from all other regions by sea


PHYSCIAL FEATURES & CLIMATE
• Mostly tropical but Southern region extends into
South temperate zones

• High rainfall in Amazon River Basin all year

• Extensive tropical rainforests

• Total absence of deserts

• Pampas: Tree less grassy plain in non tropical part


of South America, east of Andes mountain.

• In south there is severe climate of southern


Pantagonia, the isotherm of 0°C passing in winter
Zoological Characteristics
• Rich and specialized fauna, 155 vertebrate families

• 39of these are peculiar to this region - the


highest number of endemic families for any region

• 32 families of Mammals (excluding bats), 7 are


widely distributed and 16 are unique

• Endemic : Xenarthra or Edentata


– Sloths (arboreal : live upside down from trees)
– Anteaters ( tubular toothless mouth)
– Armadillos ( Fossorial: burrowing forms)
• Two families of Marsupials
– Caenolestidae (shrew opossum) exclusive
– Opossum (also found in Nearctic)

shrew opossum Opossum


• South American monkeys are exclusive.
• Brilliantly colored
• Flat nose
• Smaller than Old World monkeys
• Little larger than squirrel
• Two families
1. Cebidae 2.
Callithricidae
• 11 endemic families of rodents

• 5 indigenous families of bats including


vampire bats .
• Two families of mammals show discontinuous
distribution
– Camel
– Tapirs
• Camelidae otherwise Palaearctic are represented
in Neotropical by endemic Llama

• Tapirs are found in Malaya, Java and Sumatra


on one side and South America on the other
Tapir
Llama
BIRD FAUNA
• Bird fauna is diversified and unique

• South America is known as “Bird continent”


due to high endemism of bird fauna

• Rhea (American ostrich) and


Tinamous (patridge like bird) are exclusive to
this region
Rhea Tinamou
• Brilliantly colored birds such as toucans,
macaws, parrots, oil birds, humming birds,
sand thrushes, tree creepers, plant cutters,
sugar birds and puff birds are present in this
region

• Scarcity of song birds

• No representative of pheasant family


Macaw Touca
n

Humming Bird
REPTILIAN FAUNA
• Reptiles are abundant and rich

• Dominated by crocodiles, caimans, mud


turtles, side-necked turtles, geckos, boas, pit
vipers, coral snakes and anaconda, the largest
python snake
Anaconda
AMPHIBIAN FAUNA
• Amphibian fauna is moderately rich

• Includes a variety of tree frogs, common frogs


and toads

• Tailed amphibians represented by only


one genus Oedipus

Oedipus
FISH FAUNA
• Carp fishes absent
• Fauna dominated by characins, gymnotids and
catfishes
• Gymnotids (the electric eels) are not related to
mormyrids of the Ethiopian region but the
characins are shared by both regions
• Lepidosiren (the lungfish of South America)
is related to Protopterus (the
lungfish of Ethiopian region)

Lepidosiren
AFFINITIES
• Neotropical region possesses the highest
number of endemic families. The reason being
the long period of isolation

• No representation of many commonly


occurring families

• No hedgehogs, moles, beavers, hyenas, bovids


and native horses.
• No anthropoid apes and dog-shaped monkeys

• Like Palaearctic and Nearctic, the Neotropical


region shares mice, dogs, bears, mustelids,
cats, deers, etc.
• It shares with Nearctic some important groups
of animals like opossums, armadillos,
porcupines and peccaries

• The richness of fauna is particularly evident in


the tropical parts of Neotropical region

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