Sundaland - Ecology

Ecology

The islands of Sundaland rest on an extension of Asia's shallow continental shelf, called the Sunda shelf. During the ice ages, sea levels were lower and all of Sundaland was an extension of the Asian continent.

As a result, the islands of Sundaland are home to many Asian mammals including elephants, monkeys, apes, tigers, tapirs, and rhinoceros. The Wallace Line, which includes the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok, and the Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi, together mark the end of the Asian continental shelf, and the islands of Wallacea are separated from Asia and from Australia and New Guinea by deep ocean.

Botanists often include Sundaland, the adjacent Philippines, Wallacea and New Guinea in a single Floristic province of Malesia, based on similarities in their flora, which is predominantly of Asian origin.