The Wallacea is a biogeographic zone which includes/understands the whole of the islands located, beyond Java and of Borneo, between the Southeast Asia and the close Oceania. It corresponds to the zones which could not be completely occupied by placental mammals, because of their geographical insulation and the depth of the water which surrounds them (whereas Sumatra, Java and Borneo were attached to the continent for long periods, in particular when the sea level was lower). Zone of transition, it owes its name to the British paleontologist Alfred Wallace, Co-discoverer at the 19th century with Charles Darwin of the theory of the evolution.

Geography

It includes/understands the islands Nusa Tenggara, which include Lombok, Komodo, Florès and Sumba; Timor; Sulawesi (Célèbes); the islands Moluques of North, including/understanding Halmahera; and the essence of the province of the Moluques, except the islands Aru, which are located on the plate Australia. It covers a surface of 347.000 km ².

The border between Sunda (continental with islands close from/to each other, this name with given in modern French, the Probe) and Wallacea (insular) follows the Ligne Wallace, named according to the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who was the first to notice the differences in fauna of the mammals and the birds on the two sides of the line. The current islands of Sunda, in the west of the line, include Java, Bali, Borneo divide the same fauna of mammal with that of the East Asia, including/understanding tiger S, Rhinocéros and Primates. During the glacial era, the sea level was definitely lower, linking the majority of these islands in the continent of Asia and making it possible the Asian animals to come to live these islands. Other side, the Australia and the New Guinea, linked by the same continental shelf, divided same fauna: Marsupial and terrestrial birds. Wallacea included/understood only few terrestrial mammals, which could not cross the ocean. On the other hand, of the reptiles, of the birds and the insects were able to cross this maritime border.

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