AUSTRALIAN REGION

one of the six major land areas of the world defined on the basis of its characteristic animal life. It coincides with the Notogaean biogeographic realm and encompasses Australia and the outlying islands of Tasmania, New Guinea, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It includes such animals as the birds of paradise, the duck-billed platypus, spiny anteaters, and the world's concentration of pouched mammals such as kangaroos and their kin. The vegetational division roughly corresponding to this region is called the Australian kingdom. Conspicuous among the plants of the region are the eucalypti, myrtles, acacias, and casuarinas.