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 mass and drinks eight times its total body mass each day. Its nest is 3 cm across. The vulnerable Kitti's hog-nosed bat ("Craseonycteris thonglongyai"), also known as the bumblebee bat, from Thailand and Myanmar is the smallest mammal, at in length and in weight. The Etruscan shrew ("Suncus etruscus"), is the smallest mammal by mass, weighing only about on average. The bumblebee bat has a smaller skull size. The smallest mammal that ever lived, the shrew-like "Batodonoides vanhouteni", weighed only . The smallest member of the rodent order is the Baluchistan pygmy jerboa, with an average body length of only