Continent Continent A continent is one of several very large landmasses of the world. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, they are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Geologically, the continents largely correspond to areas of continental crust that are found on the continental plates. However, some areas of continental crust are regions covered with water not usually included in the list of continents. Zealandia is one such area (see submerged continents below). Islands are frequently grouped with
Smallest organisms montane environments. There is relatively little data on size variation among individuals, growth from metamorphosis to adulthood or size variation among populations in these species. Additional studies and the discovery of further minute frog species are likely to change the rank order of this list. The dwarf gecko ("Sphaerodactylus ariasae") and the Virgin Islands dwarf sphaero ("S. parthenopion"), two geckos in the genus "Sphaerodactylus", are the world's smallest known reptile species and smallest lizard, with a snout-vent length of . A few "Brookesia" chameleons from Madagascar are equally small, with a reported snout-vent length of 15–18 millimetres for male dwarf