VIDA SALVAJE

VIDA SALVAJE  DE AFRICA

UNA GRAN CANTIDAD SE

ENCUENTRA EN AFRICA

 

 

 

Fauna of Africa, in its broader sense, is all the animals living on the n continent and its surrounding seas and islands. The more characteristic African fauna is found in the Afrotropical ecoregion - formerly called Ethiopian the Sub-Saharan Africa. Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and equally to north and south of the equator creates favourable conditions for rich wildlife.
Image:Hyenas at stolen impala kill.Spotted hyenas at the carcass of an impala that they had stolen from a cheetah at Masai Mara National Park, Kenya

 Origins of African fauna
Whereas the earliest traces of life in fossil record of Africa date to the earliest times,F. Westall et al., Implications of a 3.472-3.333Gyr-old subaerial microbial mat from the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa for the UV environmental conditions on the early Earth, Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B, Vol.361, No.1474 (2006) the formation of African fauna as we know it today, began with the splitting up of the Gondwana supercontinent in the mid-Mesozoic era. Image:Laurasia-Gondwana.right250The continents Laurasia-Gondwana 200 million years ago
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.E.Gheerbrant, J.-C. Rage,Paleobiogeography of Africa: How distinct from Gondwana and Laurasia?.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology,Vol 241, 9 Nov. 2006Madagascar 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.R.McCall, Implications of recent geological investigations of the Mozambique Channel for the mammalian colonization of Madagascar, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (1997)

 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 from 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 regionsE.Lönnberg,The Development and Distribution of the African Fauna in Connection with and Depending upon Climatic Changes.Arkiv for Zoologi, Band 21 A. No.4.1929.J.Fjeldsaå and J.C.Lovett,Geographical patterns of old and young species in African forest biota: the significance of specific montane areas as evolutionary centres.Biodiversity and Conservation,Vol 6, No 3 March 1997 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.Owen-Smith,N.Pleistocene extinctions; the pivotal role of megaherbivores. Paleobiology; July 1987; v. 13; no. 3 Its situation in the tropics spared it also from Pleistocene Ice age glaciation and the climate has not changed muchP. Brinck.The Relations between the South African Fauna and the Terrestrial and Limnic Animal Life of the Southern Cold Temperate Zone.Proc. Royal Soc. of London. Series B, Vol. 152, No. 949 (1960)

 More than 1100 mammal species live in Africa.A.Anton, M.Anton.Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large Mammal Fauna, Columbia Univ. Press,2007
Africa has three endemic orders of mammals, the Tubulidentata (aardvarks), Afrosoricida(tenrecs and golden moles), and Macroscelidea (elephant shrews). The current research of mammalian phylogeny has proposed an Afrotheria clade (including the exclusively African orders).Tabuce, R, et al., Early Tertiary mammals from North Africa reinforce the molecular Afrotheria clade. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol.274, No.1614 (2007) The tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublandsEast-African plains are well known for their diversity of large mammals. African Soricomorpha include the Myosoricinae and Crocidurinae subfamilies. Hedgehogs include desert hedgehogs, Atelerix and others. The rodents are represented by African bush squirrels, African ground squirrels, African striped squirrels, gerbils, cane rats,acacia rats, Nesomyidae, springhare, Spalacidae, dassie rats, striped grass mouse striped grass mic, sun squirrels, thicket rats, Old World porcupines, target rats, maned rats, Deomyinae, 'Aethomys', 'Arvicanthis', 'Colomys', 'Dasymys, Dephomys'Epixerus', 'Grammomys', 'Graphiurus', 'Hybomy', 'Hylomyscus', 'Malacomys', 'Mastomys', 'Mus (genus)Mus', 'Mylomys', 'Myomyscus', 'Oenomys', 'Otomys', 'Parotomys', 'Pelomys', 'Praomys', 'Rhabdomys', 'Stenocephalemys' and many others. African rabbits and hares include riverine rabbit, Bunyoro rabbit, Cape hare, scrub hare, Ethiopian highland hare, African savanna hare, Abyssinian hare and several species of 'Pronolagus'.
Among the marine mammals there are several species of dolphins, 2 species of sirenians and seals e.g. Cape fur seals. Of the carnivorans there are 60 species, including the conspicuous hyenas, ions, leopards, cheetahs, serval, as well as the less prominent bat-eared fox, striped polecat, African striped weasel, caracal, honey badger, speckle-throated otter, several mongooses, jackals,  civets,  etc. The family Eupleridae is restricted to MadagascarThe African list of ungulates is longer than in any other continent. The largest number of modern bovids is found in Africa African buffalo, duikers, impala, rhebok, Reduncinae, oryx, dik-dik, klipspringer, oribi, gerenuk, Gazellatrue gazelles, hartebeest, wildebeest, dibatag, Taurotraguseland, 'Tragelaphus', 'Hippotragus', 'Neotragus', 'Raphicerus', 'Damaliscus'. Other even-toed ungulates include giraffes, hippopotamuses, warthogs, giant forest hogs, red river hos and bushpigs. Odd-toed ungulates are represented by three species of zebras, African wild ass, black rhinoceros black and white rhinoceros. The biggest African mammal is the African bush elephant, the second largest being its smaller counterpart, the African forest elephant. In the past three years the elephant population has significantly increased in Africa and in some parts the population has increased by 300%. Four species of pangolins can be found in Africa
 Four species of great apes Hominidae are endemic to Africa: both species of gorilla western gorilla, Gorilla gorilla, and eastern gorilla, Gorilla beringei'and both species of chimpanzee common chimpanzee, 'Pan troglodyte, and bonobo, Pan paniscus. Humans and their ancestors originated in Africa. Other primates include Colobinaecolobuses, baboons, geladas, vervet monkeys , macaque s mandrills, crested mangabeys, white-eyelid mangabeys, kipunji, Allen's swamp monkeys, Patas monkeys and talapoins. Lemurs and aye-aye are characteristic of Madagascar. See also Lists of mammals by region

 

 

 

 

 

VIDEOS DE ANIMALES SALVAJES DE AFRICA