Information AboutFauna |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT FAUNA | |
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Fauna is a collective term for Animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''''' Flora '''''. 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 Faunal Stage s, 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 word for 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 Epifauna ''Epifauna'' are animals that live upon the surface of Sediment s or Soil s. Infauna ''Infauna'' are aquatic animals that live within the bottom substratum rather than on its surface. Bacteria and microalgae may also live in the interstices of bottom sediments. On average, infaunal animals become progressively rarer with increasing water depth and distance from shore, whereas bacteria show more constancy in abundance, tending toward one billion cells per milliliter of interstitial seawater. Macrofauna ''Macrofauna'' are Benthic or soil organisms which are at least one millimeter 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 Invertebrate s that live in both marine and fresh water Environments . The term ''Meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of Organism s by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. In practice these 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 Arthropod s, Earthworm s, and Nematode s. Microfauna ''Microfauna'' are microscopic or very small animals (usually including Protozoa ns and very small animals such as Rotifer s). Other Other terms include ''avifauna'', which means " Bird fauna" and ''piscifauna'' (or ''ichthyofauna''), which means " Fish fauna". FAUNA TREATISES Classic faunas
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