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 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