Fauna

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Fauna

Fauna is a collective term for animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota.

Zoologists and paleontologists usually use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna".

Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of 80 or so faunal stages, which are a series of rocks all containing similar fossils.

The name comes from Fauna, a Roman fertility and earth goddess. Fauna is also the name of a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner. The term was first used by Linnaeus in the title of his 1746 work Fauna Suecica.

Subdivisions of fauna

Cryofauna

Cryofauna are animals that live in, or very close to, ice.

Cryptofauna

Cryptofauna are animals that are rarely seen and may be extinct or mythological.

Epifauna

Epifauna are non-photosynthetic, benthic organisms that live upon the surface of sediments or soils.

Infauna

Infauna are aquatic organisms (usually animals, but sometimes algae) that live within particulate media such as sediments or soil. They are most common in the subtidal and deeper zones.

Macrofauna

Macrofauna are benthic or soil organisms which are at least several centimeters in length.

Megafauna

''Main article: Megafauna

Megafauna are large animals of any particular region or time. For example, Australian megafauna.

Meiofauna

Meiofauna are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term Meiofauna loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. In practice this are organisms that can pass through a 1 mm mesh but will be retained by a 45 μm mesh, but the exact dimensions will vary from researcher to researcher. Whether an organism will pass through a 1 mm mesh will also depend upon whether it is alive or dead at the time of sorting.

Mesofauna

Mesofauna are macroscopic soil invertebrates such as arthropods, earthworms, and nematodes.

Microfauna

Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including protozoans and very small animals such as rotifers.

Other terms include avifauna, which means "bird fauna" and piscifauna, which means "fish fauna".

Fauna treatises

Classic faunas

Linnaeus, Carolus. Fauna Suecica. 1746

References

External links

Fauna & Flora International

Fauna | Ecology

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