Abstract
THE marine fauna of the globe may conveniently, in the pursuit of certain lines of scientific study, be divided into three groups according to the regions inhabited by it. There is the littoral fauna comprising the animals inhabiting the sea-shore and the shallow waters in its immediate neighbourhood, the deep-sea fauna, and the pelagic fauna, the latter occupying the surface waters of the ocean. Each of these regions presents certain marked peculiarities of conditions of existence, and exhibits, in accordance with these, certain special characteristics in the composition and history of the origin of its fauna. The deep-sea is devoid of sunlight and therefore of plant life. It is dark, cold, and monotonous, being devoid of day and night and periodical or irregular changes of any kind. Its habitation probably dates from no very great antiquity. The ocean surface can support only a peculiar fauna of animals adapted for floating or constant swimming, and affords no shelters nor resting-places.
Article PDF
References
"On Pourtalesia, a genus of Echinoidia." by Sven Lovèn . (Stockholm, 1883, p. 86.)
F. M. Balfour, "Comparative Embryology," vol. ii. p. 305.
W. J. Sollas, Quart. Journ. Micro. Sci., 1884, p. 612.
Report on the Cirripedia. Challenger Report, Zoology, vol. viii. p. 75.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Fauna of the Sea-Shore 1 . Nature 32, 417–420 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032417a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032417a0