Simplified schematic of an island's fauna - all its animal species, highlighted in boxes.

Fauna is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora. In Botany, flora ( Plural: floras or florae has two meanings The first meaning flora of an area or of time period, refers to all

Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e. Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna". The Sonoran Desert (sometimes called the Gila Desert after the Gila River or the Low Desert in opposition to the higher Mojave Desert) is See also Burgess shale type fauna The Burgess Shale is famous for the exceptional preservation of the fossils found within it in which the soft parts are preserved

Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils.

The name comes from Fauna, a Roman fertility and earth goddess, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. In Roman mythology, Pan 's counterpart Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities the Di indigetes, who was a good spirit of the forest plains and fields In Roman mythology, fauns are place-spirits ( genii) of untamed woodland All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and panis is the Greek equivalent of fauna. Pan ( Greek, Genitive) is the Greek god of shepherds and flocks of mountain wilds hunting and rustic music paein means to pasture Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly 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 1747 work Fauna Suecica. Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for

Subdivisions of fauna

Epifauna

Epifauna are animals that live upon the surface of sediments or soils. Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of Soil, often typeset as SOiL, is a four piece rock band from Chicago Illinois United States founded by Shaun Glass Tom Schofield Tim King and Adam Zadel

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. (Infauna are benthos that live buried in underwater mud. )

Macrofauna

Macrofauna are benthic or soil organisms which are at least one millimeter in length. The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a Body of water such as an Ocean or a Lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface

Megafauna

Main article: Megafauna

Megafauna are large animals of any particular region or time. Megafauna are species of large Animals ( Greek μεγας large + modern Latin fauna animal For example, Australian megafauna. Australian megafauna is a term used to describe a number of comparatively large Animal Species in Australia, often defined as species with body

Meiofauna

Meiofauna are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a Body of water such as an Ocean or a Lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface An invertebrate is an Animal lacking a Vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal Species — all animals except those in the Chordate An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants animals and micro-organisms( Biotic factors in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical ( 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 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. A mesh is a flat semi-permeable barrier made of connected strands of Metal, Fiber, or other flexible/ductile material 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. Arthropods are Animals belonging to the Phylum Arthropoda (from Greek ἄρθρον arthron, " Joint " Earthworm is the usual name for the largest members of Oligochaeta (which is either a class or subclass depending on the author in the phylum Annelida In classical The nematodes or roundworms ( Phylum Nematoda from Greek (nema "thread" + -ode "like" are one of the most common

Microfauna

Main article: Microfauna

Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including protozoans and very small animals such as rotifers). Microfauna of species (small animals Africa Microfauna Anderson's Gerbil Red-billed Quelea Red-billed Oxpecker Protozoa (in Greek πρῶτον proton "first" and ζῷα zoia "animals" are unicellular Eukaryotes (singular The rotifers make up a Phylum of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate Animals They were first described by Rev

Other

Other terms include avifauna, which means "bird fauna" and piscifauna (or ichthyofauna), which means "fish fauna". Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two

Fauna treatises

Classic faunas

• Linnaeus, Carolus. Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for Fauna Suecica. 1746

See also

• Animal
• Biome
• Flora
• Fauna and Flora Preservation Society
• Gene pool
• Genetic pollution
• Genetic erosion