Wallace realms: Biotic Provinces

In 1876, A.R.Wallace suggested that the world could be divided into six biogeographic regions on the basis of fundamental features of the animals found in those areas which in fact, are known as Wallace’s realms.

Wallace’s realms are: Neartic (North America), Neotropical (Central and South America), Palaearctic (Europe, northern Asia, and northern Africa), Ethiopian (central and southern Africa), Oriental (the Indian subcontinent and Malaysia), and Australian.

A biotic province is a region inhabited by a characteristic set of taxa (species, families, orders), bound by barriers that prevent the spread of distinctive kinds of life to other regions and the immigration of foreign species. In a biotic province, organisms share a common genetic heritage but may live in a variety of environments as long as they are genetically isolated from other regions.