The Pleistocene Endemic Fauna of the Indonesian Archipelago.

Abstract

The Indonesian Archipelago is situated between the Asian and the Australian continents. It is divided into the Sunda and the Sahul shelves and the Wallacea area in between. The Sunda and the Sahul shelves have been connected with the continents several times, as the result of tectonic movements and sea level fluctuations in Pleistocene time. On the other hand, the Wallacea area has never been connected to any continent. Asiatic faunas have migrated to Java, and some ofthem have even been able to cross over Wallace's line by sweepstake dispersal. Thereafter, they adapted to island environments and developed into the unbalanced endemic island faunas. This paper gives an overview of the unbalanced endemic island faunas of the Indonesian archipelago.