add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
 Sundaland is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia that comprises the Malay Peninsula and Maritime Southeast Asia islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and surrounding smaller islands. The eastern boundary of Sundaland is the Wallace Line, identified by Alfred Russel Wallace, which marks the eastern boundary of the Asia's land mammal fauna, and is the boundary of the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones. The islands east of the Wallace line are known as Wallacea, and are considered part of Australasia. Some scholars like Oppenheimer locate the origin of the Austronesian languages in Sundaland and its upper regions.[1] Genetic research reported in 2008 indicates that the islands which are the remnants of Sundaland were likely populated as early as 50,000 years ago, contrary to a previous hypothesis that they were populated as late as 10,000 years ago from Taiwan.[2]
[edit] HistoryThe South China Sea and adjoining landmasses had been investigated by scientists such as Molengraaff and Umbgrove who had postulated ancient now submerged drainage systems. These have been mapped by Tjia in 1980 and described in greater detail by Emmel and Curray in 1982 complete with river deltas, floodplains and backswamps.[3] The ecology of the exposed sunda shelf has been investigated analyzing cores drilled into the ocean bed. The pollen found in the cores have revealed a complex ecosystem that changed over time.[4] The flooding of Sundaland separated species that had once shared the same environment such as the river threadfin (Polydactylus macrophthalmus, Bleeker 1858) that had once thrived in a river system now called "North Sunda River" or "Molengraaff river". Now the fish is known from the Kapuas River on Borneo and the Musi and Batanghari rivers on Sumatra in Indonesia.[5] [edit] EcologyThe islands of Sundaland rest on an extension of Asia's shallow continental shelf called the Sunda shelf. During the ice ages, sea levels were lower and all of Sundaland was an extension of the Asian continent. As a result, the islands of Sundaland are home to many Asian mammals, including monkeys, apes, tigers, tapirs, and rhinoceros. The Wallace Line, which includes the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, and the Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi, marks the end of the Asian continental shelf, and the islands of Wallacea are separated from Asia and from Australia and New Guinea by deep ocean. Botanists often include Sundaland, the adjacent Philippines, Wallacea and New Guinea in a single Floristic province of Malesia, based on similarities in their flora, which is predominantly of Asian origin. [edit] Ecoregions of SundalandTropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests Montane grasslands and shrublands [edit] Notes and references
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Selected faunal references in Borneo
[edit] See also[edit] External links |
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
