Australia (continent) Australia (continent) The continent of Australia, sometimes known in technical contexts by the names Sahul, Australinea or Meganesia to distinguish it from the country of Australia, consists of the land masses which sit on Australia's continental shelf. This includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, and the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and two Indonesian provinces). Situated in the geographical region of Oceania, it is the smallest of the seven traditional continents in the English conception. The continent lies on a continental shelf overlain by shallow seas which divide it into several landmasses—the Arafura Sea and Torres Strait between mainland
Smallest organisms on the archaeon "Ignicoccus"; it must be in contact with the host organism to survive. Prasinophyte algae of the genus "Ostreococcus" is the smallest free-living eukaryote. The single cell of an "Ostreococcus" measures only 0.8 μm across. Several species of Myxozoa (obligately parasitic cnidarians) never grow larger than 20 µm. One of the smallest species ("Myxobolus shekel") is no more than 8.5 µm when fully grown. The shell of the nut clam "Condylonucula maya" grows only 0.54 mm long. The smallest water snail (of all snails) is "Ammonicera minortalis" in North America, originally described from Cuba. It measures 0.32 to