The Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is the whole of animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for and fungi are flora and funga, respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as biota. and 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". Paleontology sometimes refer to a sequence of , which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics.
Etymology
Fauna comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god
Faunus, and the related forest spirits called
. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and
panis is the
Modern Greek equivalent of fauna (πανίς or rather πανίδα).
Fauna is also the word for a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner. The term was first used by
Carl Linnaeus from Sweden in the title of his 1745
work
Fauna Suecica.
Subdivisions on the basis of region
Cryofauna
Cryofauna refers to the animals that live in, or very close to, cold areas.
Cryptofauna
Cryptofauna is the fauna that exists in protected or concealed
microhabitats.
[ NCRI]
Epifauna
Epifauna, also called
epibenthos, are aquatic animals that live on the bottom substratum as opposed to within it, that is, the
benthic fauna that live on top of the sediment surface at the seafloor.
Infauna
Infauna are
Benthic zone organisms that live within the bottom substratum of a water body, especially within the bottom-most oceanic sediments, the layer of small particles at the bottom of a body of water, rather than on its surface.
Bacteria and
microalgae may also live in the interstices of bottom sediments. In general, infaunal animals become progressively smaller and less abundant with increasing water depth and distance from shore, whereas bacteria show more constancy in abundance, tending toward one million cells per milliliter of interstitial seawater.
Such creatures are found in the fossil record and include lingulata, Trilobite and Worm. They made burrows in the sediment as protection and may also have fed upon detritus or the mat of microbes which tended to grow on the surface of the sediment.[
Infauna organisms in hydrothermal environments have developed adaptive strategies to survive harsh conditions, such as extreme temperatures, low pH levels, and reduced salinity. They constructed galleries, with the highest abundance in H1, and the dominant classes, Malacostraca and Polychaeta, demonstrating mobility-based strategies like burrowing or crawling. These strategies help infauna cope with hydrothermal influence.” (Rodriguez Uribe 2023). hydrothermal influence refers to the transformative effects of hot water on geological, chemical, and biological systems, and it plays a significant role in a wide range of natural processes and human activities.
. p. 266] Today, a variety of organisms live in and Bioturbation. The deepest burrowers are the ghost shrimps ( Thalassinidea), which go as deep as into the sediment at the bottom of the ocean.[. p. 267]
Limnofauna
Limnofauna refers to the animals that live in fresh water.
Macrofauna
Macrofauna are
benthic or soil organisms which are retained on a 0.5 mm sieve. Studies in the deep sea define macrofauna as animals retained on a 0.3 mm sieve to account for the small size of many of the taxa.
Megafauna
Megafauna are large animals of any particular region or time. For example, Australian megafauna.
Meiofauna
Meiofauna are small
benthic that live in both marine and freshwater
Ecosystem. The term
meiofauna loosely defines a group of
by their
size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna, rather than a taxonomic grouping. One environment for meiofauna is between grains of damp sand (see
Mystacocarida).
In practice these are metazoan animals that can pass unharmed through a 0.5–1 mm mesh but will be retained by a 30–45 μm mesh,[ Fauna of Sandy Beaches] but the exact dimensions will vary from to researcher. Whether an organism passes through a 1 mm mesh also depends upon whether it is alive or dead at the time of sorting.
Mesofauna
Mesofauna are macroscopic soil animals such as
or
. Mesofauna are extremely diverse; considering just the springtails (
Collembola), as of 1998, approximately 6,500 species had been identified.
Microfauna
Microfauna are microscopic or very small animals (usually including
and very small animals such as
). To qualify as part of the microfauna, an organism must exhibit animal-like characteristics, as opposed to
microflora, which are more plant-like.
Stygofauna
Stygofauna is any fauna that lives in
groundwater systems or aquifers, such as
, fissures and
. Stygofauna and
troglofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – stygofauna is associated with water, and troglofauna with caves and spaces above the
water table. Stygofauna can live within freshwater
and within the spaces of
limestone,
calcrete or
laterite, whilst larger animals can be found in cave waters and wells. Stygofaunal animals, like troglofauna, are divided into three groups based on their life history - stygophiles, stygoxenes, and stygobites.
Troglofauna
Troglofauna are small
cave-dwelling
that have
adaptation to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and
stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofauna is associated with caves and spaces above the water table and stygofauna with water. Troglofaunal species include
,
,
myriapods and others. Some troglofauna lives permanently underground and cannot survive outside the cave environment. Troglofauna adaptations and characteristics include a heightened sense of hearing, touch and smell.
Loss of under-used senses is apparent in the lack of pigmentation as well as eyesight in most troglofauna. Troglofauna insects may exhibit a lack of
insect wing and longer
.
Xenofauna
Xenofauna,
Drake equation, are alien organisms that can be described as
Animal. While no alien life forms, animal-like or otherwise, are known definitively, the concept of alien life remains a subject of great interest in fields like
astronomy,
astrobiology,
biochemistry, evolutionary biology,
science fiction, and
philosophy.
Other
Other terms include
avifauna, which means "
bird fauna" and
piscifauna (or
ichthyofauna), which means "
fish fauna".
Treatises
Classic faunas
See also
External links
