The fauna of Africa are all the animals living in Africa and its surrounding seas and islands. The more characteristic African fauna are found in the Afro-tropical realm.[1] Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and stretching equally north and south of the equator creates favorable conditions for variety and abundance of wildlife. Africa is home to many of the world's most recognizable fauna such as lions‚ rhinoceroses‚ cheetahs‚ giraffes‚ antelope, hippopotamuses, leopards, zebras‚ and elephants, among many others.
Origins and history of African fauna
Whereas the earliest traces of life in fossil record of Africa date back to the earliest times,[2] the formation of African fauna as we know it today, began with the splitting up of the Gondwana supercontinent in the mid-Mesozoic era.
After that, four to six faunal assemblages, the so-called African Faunal Strata (AFSs) can be distinguished. The isolation of Africa was broken intermittently by discontinuous "filter routes" that linked it to some other Gondwanan continents (Madagascar, South America, and perhaps India), but mainly to Laurasia. Interchanges with Gondwana were rare and mainly "out-of-Africa" dispersals, whereas interchanges with Laurasia were numerous and bidirectional, although mainly from Laurasia to Africa. Despite these connections, isolation resulted in remarkable absences, poor diversity, and emergence of endemic taxa in Africa.[3] Madagascar separated from continental Africa during the break-up of Gondwanaland early in the Cretaceous, but was probably connected to the mainland again in the Eocene.[4]
The first Neogene faunal interchange took place in the Middle Miocene (the introduction of Myocricetodontinae, Democricetodontinae, and Dendromurinae).[5] A major terrestrial faunal exchange between North Africa and Europe began at about 6.1 Ma, some 0.4 Myr before the beginning of the Messinian salinity crisis[6](for example introduction of Murinae, immigrants from southern Asia)[7]
During the early Tertiary, Africa was covered by a vast evergreen forest inhabited by an endemic forest fauna with many types common to southern Asia. In the Pliocene the climate became dry and most of the forest was destroyed, the forest animals taking refuge in the remaining forest islands. At the same time a broad land-bridge connected Africa with Asia and there was a great invasion of animals of the steppe fauna into Africa. At the beginning of the Pleistocene a moist period set in and much of the forest was renewed while the grassland fauna was divided and isolated, as the forest fauna had previously been. The present forest fauna is therefore of double origin, partly descended of the endemic fauna and partly from steppe forms that adapted themselves to forest life, while the present savanna fauna is similarly explained. The isolation in past times has resulted in the presence of closely related subspecies in widely separated regions[8][9] Africa, where humans originated, shows much less evidence of loss in the Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, perhaps because co-evolution of large animals alongside early humans provided enough time for them to develop effective defenses.[10] Its situation in the tropics spared it also from Pleistocene glaciations and the climate has not changed much.[11]
The soil animal communities tropical Africa are poorly known. A few ecological studies have been undertaken on macrofauna, mainly in West Africa.[24] Earthworms are being extensively studied in West and South Africa.[25][26]
Insects
Approximately 100,000 species of insects have been described from Sub-Saharan Africa, but there are very few overviews of the fauna as a whole[27] (it has been estimated that the African insects make up about 10-20% of the global insect species richness,[28] and about 15% of new species descriptions come from Afrotropics[29]). The only endemic African insect order is Mantophasmatodea.
About 875 African species of dragonflies have been recorded.[30]
Hotspots for butterflies include the Congolian forests and the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic. Some butterflies (Hamanumida daedalus, Precis, Eurema) are grassland or savannah specialists. Many of these have very large populations and a vast range. South Africa has one of the highest proportions of Lycaenid butterflies (48%) for any region in the world with many species restricted in range. North Africa is in the Palaearctic region and has a different species assemblage.
Africa is the richest continent of freshwater fish, with about 3000 species.[37][38] The East African Great Lakes (Victoria, Malawi, and Tanganyika) are the center of biodiversity of many fish, especially cichlids (they harbor more than two-thirds of the estimated 2000 species in the family).[39] The West African coastal rivers region covers only a fraction of West Africa, but harbours 322 of West Africa's fish species, with 247 being restricted to this area and 129 being restricted to even smaller ranges. The central river's fauna comprises 194 fish species, with 119 endemics and only 33 restricted to small areas.[40] The marine diversity is greatest near the Indian Ocean shore with about 2000 species.[41]
There live (temporarily or permanently) more than 2600 bird species in Africa (about 1500 of them passerines).[45] Some 114 of them are threatened species.[46]
Of the 589 species of birds (excluding seabirds) that breed in the Palaearctic (temperate Europe and Asia), 40% spend the winter elsewhere. Of those species that leave for the winter, 98% travel south to Africa.[47]
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