Neotropic ecozone

In biogeography, Neotropic or Neotropical refers to one of the world's eight terrestrial ecozones.


It is sometimes used as a synonym for the tropical area of South America, although the ecozone also includes temperate southern South America. The Neotropical Floristic Kingdom excludes southernmost South America, which instead is placed in the Antarctic Kingdom.

The Neotropics is delimited by similarities in fauna or flora. Its fauna and flora are distinct from the Nearctic (which includes most of North America) because of the long separation of the two continents. The formation of the Isthmus of Panama joined the two continents 2 to 3 million years ago.


Major ecological regions



The Amazonia bioregion is mostly covered by tropical moist broadleaf forest, including the vast Amazon rainforest, which stretches from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, and the lowland forests of the Guyanas. The bioregion also includes tropical savanna and tropical dry forest ecoregions.


Central America

Central Andes

Eastern South America


Northern Andes


Southern South America



South America was originally part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which included Africa, Australia, India, New Zealand, and Antarctica, and the Neotropic shares many plant and animal lineages with these other continents, including Marsupial mammals and the Antarctic flora. After the final breakup of the Gondwana, South America drifted north and west, and was later joined with North America by the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, which allowed a biotic exchange between the two continents, the Great American Interchange. South American species like the ancestors of the Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) and the armadillo moved into North America, and North Americans like the ancestors of South America's camelids, including the llama (Lama glama), moved south. The long-term effect of the exchange was the extinction of many South American species, mostly by outcompetition by northern species.

Endemic animals and plants


Thirty-one bird families are endemic to the Neotropic ecozone, over twice the number of any other ecozone. They include rheas, tinamous, curassows, and toucans. Bird families originally unique to the Neotropics include hummingbirds (family Trochilidae) and wrens (family Troglodytidae).

Mammal groups originally unique to the Neotropics include:



Plant families that originated in the Neotropic include Bromeliaceae, Cannaceae, and Heliconiaceae.

Plant species originally unique to the Neotropic include:

Neotropic Terrestrial Ecoregions

External links

  • Map of the ecozones
  • Eco-Index, a bilingual searchable reference of conservation and research projects in the Neotropics; a service of the Rainforest Alliance


  • Cox, C. Barry; Peter D. Moore (1985). Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach (Fourth Edition). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.
  • Schultz, J.: The Ecozones of the World, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2n ed. 2005. ISBN 3540200142

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