The division from the Indomalayan ecozone is the Wallace Line, named after the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who identified the differences between the islands either side of the line.
From a biological point of view, Australasia is a distinct region with a common evolutionary history and a great many unique plants and animals, some of them common to the entire area, others specific to particular parts but sharing a common ancestory.
There are 13 endemic bird families including emus, cassowaries, kiwis, kagu, cockatoos, bird-of-paradise[?], and honeyeaters
See also: Australasia, List of Australasia ecoregions
External link :
Map of the ecozones (http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/ecoregions/global200/pages/mainmap.htm)
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump