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. Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as
Zoologists and paleontologists usually use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "
Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of 80 or so
The name comes from
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[edit] Subdivisions of fauna
[edit] Cryofauna
Cryofauna are animals that live in, or very close to, ice.
[edit] Cryptofauna
Cryptofauna are animals that are rarely seen and may be extinct or mythological.
[edit] Epifauna
Epifauna are non-photosynthetic,
[edit] 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.
[edit] Macrofauna
Macrofauna are benthic or soil organisms which are at least several centimeters in length.
[edit] Megafauna
- Main article:
Megafauna are large animals of any particular region or time. For example,
[edit] 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 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.
[edit] Mesofauna
Mesofauna are macroscopic soil invertebrates such as arthropods, earthworms, and nematodes.
[edit] Microfauna
Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including protozoans and very small animals such as rotifers.
[edit] Other
Other terms include avifauna, which means "bird fauna" and piscifauna (or ichthyofauna), which means "fish fauna".