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The number of species, as well as the species composition,
vary greatly among the different mountain regions. The Snowy Mountains of
Australia show species from the order of Monotremata and Marsupialia exclusively,
while primates occur only in the Ethiopian Highlands. In the European
Alps and the Ethiopian Highlands the Rodents are the dominant order,
however the Ethiopian Highlands harbour many endemic species.
In this unit we will focus on the similarities between
these mountain regions and their fauna. We will present alpine habitats that
are present in high altitudes of all the regions and we will show
adaptations to the alpine habitats that were similar for alpine animals
around the world.
In the following lesson "Alpine fauna: origin of species composition"
we focus on the development of the different compositions of species in the different mountain regions.
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