fauna

American  

[faw-nuh] / ˈfɔ nə /

noun

• faunas,
  plural
• faunae
  plural

1. the animals of a given region or period considered as a whole.

2. a treatise on the animals of a given region or period.

3. (initial capital letter) Bona Dea.

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fauna British  

/ ˈfɔːnə /

noun

1. all the animal life of a given place or time, esp when distinguished from the plant life (flora)

2. a descriptive list of such animals

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fauna Scientific  

/ fô′nə /

• faunas
  plural

1. The animals of a particular region or time period.

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fauna Cultural  

1. Animals, especially the animals of a particular place and time.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• faunal
  adjective
• faunally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• faunae
  plural
• faunas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of fauna

1765–75; < New Latin, special use of Latin Fauna, a feminine counterpart to Faunus; cf. Flora

Explanation

When you go on a nature walk in a school setting, your teacher might tell you to observe the flora and fauna in the woods. Flora is plant life; fauna refers to animals. Fauna derives from the name of a Roman goddess, but the handiest way to remember the difference between flora and fauna is that flora sounds like flowers, which are part of the plant world; fauna, however, sounds like "fawn," and fawns are part of the animal kingdom.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fauna faunae faunas

Furthermore, the discovery reinforces Rio Grande do Sul’s status as one of the world’s most important regions for the study of Triassic fauna.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

Ms. Fernando struck upon the premise of her research after joining some Sri Lankan naturalists to document the flora and fauna of the Gulf of Mannar, which once constituted the British Crown’s richest pearling grounds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

There has been concern that the deadly disease could add to the extinction risks faced by Australian fauna, many of which are unique to the vast continent.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

A tiny parasitic wasp - the Attenboroughnculus tau - was also named in his honour, although it is far from his first fauna namesake.

From BBC ● May 9, 2026

Second, the New Guinea fauna included no domesticable large mammal species whatsoever.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

The winding evolutionary paths that these feathered faunae took to become so diverse, however, remains a mystery.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 4, 2024

This would be the more important as, with the exception of Brazil, hardly anything is known of the shore faunae upon the greater part of the South American coast.

From Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence by Louis Agassiz

These include some of the oldest dinosaurs like Nyasasaurus parringtoni from Tanzania and Mbiresaurus raathi from Zimbabwe, as well as rich dinosaur faunas from South Africa, Tanzania, Niger, and Morocco.

From Science Daily ● May 30, 2024

"This is one of the most diverse marine faunas seen anywhere, at any time in history, and it existed just before the marine reptiles and the dinosaurs went extinct," Dr Longrich said.

From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024

When thinking of Cretaceous animal faunas, we tend to imagine the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and other big beasts.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 5, 2017

“Definitely there was a change in population leading up to the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, so something was happening to the faunas prior to the impact,” he said.

From US News ● Feb. 24, 2011

This, however, is only a very rough-and-ready method of sub-dividing the British Islands into their component parts according to the origin of their faunas.

From The History of the European Fauna by Robert Francis Scharff