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AUSTRALIAN REGION

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 173 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AUSTRALIAN REGION .—Of crocodiles only. C. johnstoni in N. See also:

Australia and See also:Queensland; C. porosus on the N. See also:coast, and occur-See also:ring on various Pacific islands, as far E. as the See also:Fiji Islands. Tortoises are represented only by the pleurodirous Chelydidae, e.g. Chelodina; they are absent in See also:Tasmania and on the Pacific islands. New See also:Guinea possesses the aquatic Carettochelys, See also:sole type of a See also:family. The bulk of the Lacertilian See also:fauna is composed of skinks, geckos, agamoids and Varanidae, with the addition of a small family which is See also:peculiar to the region, the Pygopodidae. A peculiar type, Dibamus, inhabits the borderlands, namely, New Guinea, the See also:Moluccas, See also:Celebes and the Nicobar Islands; and, finally, a single iguanoid, Brachylophus, is See also:common in the Fiji Islands; how it came there, or how it survived its severance from the See also:American stock, is a See also:mystery. The skinks are in this region more highly See also:developed and more specialized than in any other See also:part of the See also:world; they exceed in See also:numbers the geckos, which generally accompany the skinks in their range over the smaller islands of the Pacific; in these islands members of these two families represent the whole of the Lacertilian fauna. The Australian agamoids are chiefly peculiar and partly much differentiated forms (e.g. See also:Moloch and Chlamydosaurus), but some have distinct See also:affinities to, or are even identical with, See also:Indian genera. The Varanidae are also closely allied to Indian See also:species.

Of See also:

snakes, amounting to about one See also:hundred species only, we See also:note about one dozen Typhlopidae, and of Pythoninae simply See also:Python, and the Boine Enygrus on the islands from New Guinea to Fiji. There are but surprisingly few innocuous colubrine snakes, scarcely a dozen, and all belonging to Indian genera. The bulk of the snakes belong to the poisonous Elapinae, all of genera peculiar to the region, e.g. Acanthophis, Pseudechis, Notechis. Such a preponderance of poisonous over harmless snakes is found nowhere else in the world. Tasmania is tenanted by poisonous snakes only. In Australia we meet, therefore, with the interesting fact that, whilst it is closely allied to S. See also:America, but totally distinct from See also:India by its Chelonians, its lizards and colubrine snakes connect it with this latter region. With regard to the other Ophidians, they have their nearest See also:allies partly in India, partly in See also:Madagascar, partly in S. America; and the See also:character of the Australian snake fauna consists chiefly in its peculiar See also:composition, differing thereby more from the other See also:equatorial regions than those do among them-selves. See also:Wallace's See also:line marks the boundary between India and Australia only as far as Chelonians are concerned, but it is quite effaced by the See also:distribution of lizards and snakes. Thus in New Guinea lizards of the Indian region are mixed with Pygopodidae, and an See also:island as far E. as Timorlaut is inhabited by snakes, some of which are peculiarly Indian, whilst the others are as decidedly Australian.

The islands N. of New Guinea and of See also:

Melanesia are not yet occupied by the Ophidian type, and only species of Enygrus have penetrated eastwards as far as the See also:Low See also:Archipelago, whilst the Fiji Islands and the larger islands of Melanesia have sufficiently See also:long been raised above the level of the See also:sea to develop quite peculiar genera of snakes.

End of Article: AUSTRALIAN REGION

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