Zoogeography

In Mammalogy last week we learned about zoogeography and marsupials. Zoogeography is a way to describe the local and global distribution of the species based on environments. There are 7 zoogeographical regions. They are: neoarctic (modern North America), neotropical (South America), ethiopian (Africa), oriental (Southern Asia), australian (Australia), and palearctic (Eurasia). With the topic of marsupials, we discussed evolution and their historical regions. Most marsupials are only found in Australia but millions of years ago they were in modern day Antartica and all over north and South America back when the continents were connected. When the continents split, the isolation and change in climates led to extinction of early marsupials in Antartica and most of North and South america.