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Sahul (), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia, was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands.
Sahul was in the south-western Pacific Ocean, located approximately north to south between the Equator and the 44th parallel south and west to east between the 112th and the 152nd meridians east. Sahul was separated from Sundaland to its west by the Wallacea. At its largest, when ocean levels were at their lowest, it was approximately in size.
Sahul repeatedly emerged and submerged throughout the Pleistocene epoch, beginning around 2.6 million years ago. Glacial cycles—initially paced at ~41,000 years and later at ~100,000 years—drove sea-level fluctuations of up to ~120 m. Each lowstand exposed the Sahul continental shelf, with reconstructions showing land connections dating back at least ~250,000 years ago, and likely much earlier. The most recent rise in sea level, at the close of the last Ice Age, produced the modern configuration: New Guinea separated from mainland Australia about 8,000 years ago, and Tasmania about 6,000 years ago.
Sahul hosted a large variety of unique fauna that changed independently from the rest of the world. Most notably nearly all on Sahul were including a range of browsers, burrowers, and ; and rodents represented the only .
/ref> From Sahul humans spread throughout Oceania.
The name Sahul is used by archeologists, while the name Meganesia tends to be used by Zoogeography. The name Greater Australia has been used, but it has been criticised as "cartographic imperialism" because it places greater emphasis upon what is now Australia at the expense of New Guinea.
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