fauna
(ˈfɔːnə)
Pl. faunæ; also faunas.
[mod.L. fauna, an application of the pr. name of a rural goddess, the sister of Faunus (see faun); used by Linnæus in the title of his work Fauna Suecica (1746), a companion volume to his Flora Suecica (1745). Cf. flora.]
1. A collective term applied to the animals or animal life of any particular region or epoch.
| 1771 Let. in G. White Selborne (1876) 143 He should be able to account for the..manner of life of the animals of his own Fauna. 1828 Fleming Hist. Brit. Anim. Pref. 7 A few additions were afterwards made to this division of the British Fauna by Ray. 1844 Vest. Creat. (ed. 4) 99 Fossils do not form the sole memorials of the extraordinary fauna of this age. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 133 The fauna of tropical America. 1851 Richardson Geol. (1855) 448 The crustacea were represented in the carboniferous fauna. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xii. (1873) 323 A narrow isthmus now separates two marine faunas. 1877 Le Conte Elem. Geol. (1879) 155 There are..geographical faunae and florae and geological faunae and florae. |
2. A treatise upon the animals of any geographical area or geological period.
| 1885 A. Newton in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9) XVIII. 16 A rapid survey of the ornithological works which come more or less under the designation of ‘Faunæ’. |