Zoogeography 



FAUNAL PROVINCES 



The area under discussion has been divided into several faunal regions or 

 provinces, of which the Caribbean, West Indian, and Brazilian are the major 

 ones (Briggs, 1974). The extent and boundaries of the provinces have been 

 variously defined depending on the group of organisms under discussion. 

 Inevitably, zones of overlap exist, but for the purposes of this discussion, the 

 following rough limits have been used. 



Brazilian Province: This province stretches from Cape Frio near Rio de 

 Janeiro in Brazil to the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. The out- 

 flow of freshwater from the major rivers of this region has probably contrib- 

 uted to the isolation of the Brazilian coral reefs and their associated fauna 

 from those of the Caribbean. This isolation is demonstrated by the consider- 

 able endemism of the Brazilian reef fauna and that of the Caribbean reef 

 fauna, with very few species being common to both. 



Caribbean Province: This province has two components, a northern part 

 in peninsular Florida, that stretches from around Cape Kennedy on the east 

 coast to Tampa or Sanibel Island on the west coast, and a southern compo- 

 nent that runs from the mouth of the Orinoco River to around Cabo Rojo or 

 Tampico on the gulf coast of Mexico. The northern Gulf of Mexico is ex- 

 cluded from this province and is characterized as being warm-temperate, 

 rather than subtropical (Briggs, 1974:66). 



West Indian Province: This includes all the islands of the West Indian 

 chain, the Bahamas, and the isolated outrider, Bermuda. The West Indian 

 Province closely approaches the Caribbean Province in the Yucatan Penin- 

 sula to the north, and between Grenada and Trinidad in the south. There is 

 also some indication of the isolating effect on the Bahamas of the Florida 

 Current through the Straits of Florida. 



It has been suggested, on the basis of the moUuscan fauna, that a relict of 

 the Neogene Gatunian Province exists around northern Venezuela and Col- 

 ombia (Petuch, 1982). While several isopod species have been recorded only 

 from this area, these are all described in a single paper that covers a very 

 small part of this region (Paul and Menzies, 1971). There is as yet too little 

 evidence to explore the idea of this relict fauna further. 



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