What is Afrotropic?
[[Image:Ecozone Afrotropic.svg|thumb|right|300px|The Afrotropic ecozone]] The '''Afrotropic''' is one of the Earth's eight [[ecozone]]s. The zone was formerly known as the '''Ethiopian Zone'''. The zone includes [[Africa]] south of the [[Sahara]], the southern and eastern parts of the [[Arabian Peninsula]], the island of [[Madagascar]], southern [[Iran]], extreme southwestern [[Pakistan]], and the islands of the western [[Indian Ocean]]. Almost all this land was part of the ancient southern [[supercontinent]] of [[Gondwana]], which started to break up 150 million years ago. ==Major ecological regions== Because Africa is a very large [[continent]], and runs north/south acrsoss the [[equator]], the zone has many different [[climate]]s and [[habitat]]s. Most of the Afrotropic, has a [[tropical]] climate. A broad belt of deserts separate the Afrotropic from the [[Palearctic]] ecozone, which includes northern Africa and temperate [[Eurasia]]. ===Sahel and Sudan=== South of the Sahara, two belts of [[tropical]] and [[subtropical]] [[grassland]]s, [[savanna]]s and shrublands run east and west across the continent, from the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[Ethiopian Highlands]]. Immediately south of the Sahara lies the [[Sahel]] belt, a transitional zone of semi-arid short grassland and [[Acacia]] savanna. Rainfall increases further south in the [[Sudan]], a belt of taller grasslands and savannas. The Sudanian savanna is home to two great [[flood]]ed grasslands and savannas, the Sudd wetland in the Sudan, and the [[Niger]] Inland Delta in [[Mali]]. ===Southern Arabian woodlands=== South Arabia, mostly Yemen and parts of western Oman and southwest Saudi Arabia, has few permanent forests. Otherwise woodlands scatter the land and are very small [[Juniper]] or [[Acacia]] forests. ===Forest zone=== A belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forests, runs across most of equatorial Africa. The largest tropical forest zone in Africa are the forests of the [[Congo River|Congo]] Basin in Central Africa. A belt of tropical m