Fauna
Fauna is a collective term for
animal life. The corresponding term for plants is
flora. Technically, the proper term for
fauna plus
flora is
biota, but fauna is often used instead. In
zoology and
paleontology the term is often used to refer to the typical collection of animals (and sometimes plants) found in a specific time and/or place -- e.g. the '
Sonoran Desert fauna' or the '
Burgess shale fauna'.
Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of 80 or so faunal stages.
Fauna is also an alternate name for
Bona Dea,
Ops,
Terra and
Tellus,
ancient Roman goddesses. The name
Marica is also used.