Fauna is all of the
animal
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 ...
life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for
plants is ''
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or ''skin flora''.
...
'', and for
fungi, it is ''
funga
In life sciences ''funga'' is a recent term for the kingdom fungi similar to the longstanding fauna for animals and flora for plants. The term was considered to be urgently needed in order to simplify projects oriented toward implementation of edu ...
''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as ''
biota''.
Zoologists and
paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...
s use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...
fauna" or the "
Burgess Shale
The Burgess Shale is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils. At old (middle Cambrian), it is one of the earliest fos ...
fauna".
Paleontologists
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...
sometimes refer to a sequence of
faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics.
Etymology
''
Fauna'' comes from the name
Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god
Faunus, and the related forest spirits called
Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god
Pan, and ''panis'' is the
Greek equivalent of fauna. ''Fauna'' is also the word for a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner. The term was first used by
Carl Linnaeus from Sweden in the title of his 1745 work ''Fauna Suecica''.
Subdivisions on the basis of region
Cryofauna
''Cryofauna'' refers to the animals that live in, or very close to, cold areas.
Cryptofauna
''Cryptofauna'' are the fauna that exist in protected or concealed
microhabitats
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
.
Epifauna
Epifauna, also called ''epibenthos'', are aquatic animals that live on the bottom substratum as opposed to within it, that is, the
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
fauna that live on top of the sediment surface at the seafloor.
Infauna
''Infauna'' are
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
organisms that live within the bottom substratum of a water body, especially within the bottom-most oceanic sediments, the layer of small particles at the bottom of a body of water, rather than on its surface.
Bacteria and
microalgae may also live in the interstices of bottom sediments. In general, infaunal animals become progressively smaller and less abundant with increasing water depth and distance from shore, whereas bacteria show more constancy in abundance, tending toward one million cells per milliliter of interstitial seawater.
Such creatures are found in the fossil record and include
lingulata
Lingulata is a class of brachiopods, among the oldest of all brachiopods having existed since the Cambrian period (). They are also among the most morphologically conservative of the brachiopods, having lasted from their earliest appearance to the ...
,
trilobites
Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the A ...
and
worms. They made burrows in the sediment as protection and may also have fed upon detritus or the mat of microbes which tended to grow on the surface of the sediment. Today, a variety of organisms live in and
disturb the sediment. The deepest burrowers are the ghost shrimps (''
Thalassinidea
Thalassinidea is a former infraorder of decapod crustaceans that live in burrows in muddy bottoms of the world's oceans. In Australian English, the littoral thalassinidean '' Trypaea australiensis'' is referred to as the ''yabby'' (a term which a ...
''), which go as deep as into the sediment at the bottom of the ocean.
Limnofauna
''Limnofauna'' refers to the animals that live in fresh water.
Macrofauna
''Macrofauna'' are
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
or soil organisms which are retained on a 0.5 mm sieve. Studies in the deep sea define macrofauna as animals retained on a 0.3 mm sieve to account for the small size of many of the taxa.
Megafauna
''Megafauna'' are large animals of any particular region or time. For example,
Australian megafauna
The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, and the roles of human and climatic factors in their extinction ar ...
.
Meiofauna
''Meiofauna'' are small
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
invertebrates that live in both marine and freshwater
environments
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
. The term ''meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of
organisms by their
size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. One environment for meiofauna is between grains of damp sand (see
Mystacocarida
Derocheilocarididae is a family of crustaceans that form part of the meiobenthos. It is the only family in the monotypic order Mystacocaridida, and the monotypic subclass Mystacocarida. These mystacocarids are less than long, and live interstiti ...
).
In practice these are metazoan animals that can pass unharmed through a 0.5 1 mm
mesh but will be retained by a 30–45 μm mesh, but the exact dimensions will vary from
researcher to researcher. Whether an organism passes through a 1 mm mesh also depends upon whether it is alive or dead at the time of sorting.
Mesofauna
''Mesofauna'' are macroscopic soil animals such as
arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, o ...
s or
nematode
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant- parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a bro ...
s. Mesofauna are extremely diverse; considering just the springtails (
Collembola
Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ent ...
), as of 1998, approximately 6,500 species had been identified.
Microfauna
Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including
protozoa
Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...
ns and very small animals such as
rotifer
The rotifers (, from the Latin , "wheel", and , "bearing"), commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals.
They were first described by Rev. John Ha ...
s). To qualify as microfauna, an organism must exhibit animal-like characteristics, as opposed to
microflora
Microbiota are the range of microorganisms that may be commensal, symbiotic, or pathogenic found in and on all multicellular organisms, including plants. Microbiota include bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses, and have been found to ...
, which are more plant-like.
Stygofauna
Stygofauna are any fauna that live in
groundwater systems or aquifers, such as
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as se ...
s, fissures and
vugs. Stygofauna and
troglofauna
Troglofauna are small cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofaun ...
are the two types of
subterranean fauna The endemic of Dinaric Alps.
Subterranean fauna refers to Animal, animal species that are adaptation, adapted to live in an underground Natural environment, environment. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are a ...
(based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – stygofauna are associated with water, and troglofauna with caves and spaces above the
water table. Stygofauna can live within freshwater
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...
s and within the
pore
Pore may refer to:
Biology Animal biology and microbiology
* Sweat pore, an anatomical structure of the skin of humans (and other mammals) used for secretion of sweat
* Hair follicle, an anatomical structure of the skin of humans (and other ...
spaces of
limestone,
calcrete
Caliche () is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or semiarid regions ...
or
laterite
Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...
, whilst larger animals can be found in cave waters and wells. Stygofaunal animals, like troglofauna, are divided into three groups based on their life history - stygophiles, stygoxenes, and stygobites.
Troglofauna
Troglofauna are small
cave
A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as se ...
-dwelling
animal
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 ...
s that have
adapted
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and
stygofauna are the two types of
subterranean fauna The endemic of Dinaric Alps.
Subterranean fauna refers to Animal, animal species that are adaptation, adapted to live in an underground Natural environment, environment. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are a ...
(based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofauna are associated with caves and spaces above the water table and stygofauna with water. Troglofaunal species include
spiders,
insects,
myriapods
Myriapods () are the members of subphylum Myriapoda, containing arthropods such as millipedes and centipedes. The group contains about 13,000 species, all of them terrestrial.
The fossil record of myriapods reaches back into the late Silurian, a ...
and others. Some troglofauna live permanently underground and cannot survive outside the cave environment. Troglofauna adaptations and characteristics include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell.
Loss of under-used senses is apparent in the lack of pigmentation as well as eyesight in most troglofauna. Troglofauna insects may exhibit a lack of
wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is express ...
and longer
appendages.
Xenofauna
''Xenofauna'',
theoretically, are
alien
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...
organisms that can be described as
animal analogues. While no alien life forms, animal-like or otherwise, are known definitively, the concept of alien life remains a subject of great interest in fields like
astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galax ...
,
astrobiology
Astrobiology, and the related field of exobiology, is an interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology is the multidisciplinary field that investig ...
,
biochemistry
Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
,
evolutionary biology,
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...
, and
philosophy.
Other
Other terms include ''
avifauna
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...
'', which means "
bird fauna" and ''piscifauna'' (or ''
ichthyofauna
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of l ...
''), which means "
fish fauna".
Treatises
Classic faunas
*
Linnaeus, Carolus. ''Fauna Suecica''. 1746
See also
*
Biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') le ...
*
Biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
*
Ecology
*
Ecosystem
*
Environmental movement
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advoc ...
*
Fauna and Flora Preservation Society
Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is an international conservation charity and non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the planet's threatened wildlife and habitats. Founded in 1903, it is the world's oldest international conserva ...
*
Gene pool
The gene pool is the set of all genes, or genetic information, in any population, usually of a particular species.
Description
A large gene pool indicates extensive genetic diversity, which is associated with robust populations that can surv ...
*
Genetic erosion
*
Genetic pollution
Genetic pollution is a controversial term for uncontrolled gene flow into wild populations. It is defined as "the dispersal of contaminated altered genes from genetically engineered organisms to natural organisms, esp. by cross-pollination", but ...
*
Natural environment
*
Soil zoology
Soil zoology or pedozoology is the study of animals living fully or partially in the soil (soil fauna). The field of study was developed in the 1940s by Mercury Ghilarov in Russia. Ghilarov noted inverse relationships between size and numbers of ...
References
External links
"Biodiversity of Collembola and their functional role in the ecosystem"
{{Authority control
Animal ecology
Ecology terminology
Organisms