Earth Science ->Biosphere -> Life -> Fauna
The biosphere is the outermost part of the planet's shell — including air, land, surface rocks, and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. The biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the other earth spheres: lithosphere(all nonliving things), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air).
Living things are divided into three categories at their basest level: flora (plants), fauna (animals), and fungi (parasites).
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.
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 used to refer to a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner.
Sub-Divisions of Fauna
Epifauna
Epifauna are animals that live upon the surface of sediments or soils.
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
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 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 arthropods, earthworms, and nematodes.
Microfauna
Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including protozoans and very small animals such as rotifers).
Other terms for specific groups of fauna
Other terms include avifauna, which means "bird fauna" and piscifauna (or ichthyofauna), which means "fish fauna."
Animals are classified in the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa
Animals are the major group of organisms that are referred to as Fauna, classified as the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. In general they are multicellular, responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms or parts of them. Their body plan becomes fixed as they develop, usually early on in their development as embryos, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on.
The word "animal" comes from the Latin word animal, of which animalia is the plural, and is derived from anima, meaning "vital breath or soul."
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The modern horse, as we know it today, has been around for about 6 million years. The early ancestor of the modern horse has been traced back sixty million years to an animal scientists call Eophippus. The first complete skeleton was found in 1931 in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. |
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Most animals can be divided into four basic groups. |
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Animals are a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. In general they are multicellular, responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms or parts of them. |
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Earth Science 
