Southeast Asia Philippines. The eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor (east of the Wallace Line) are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania (Wallacea) due to its distinctive faunal features. New Guinea and its surrounding islands are geologically considered as a part of Australian continent, connected via the Sahul Shelf. The region was already inhabited by Homo erectus from 1,000,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene age. "Homo sapiens" reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, having moved eastwards from the Indian subcontinent. Rock art (parietal art) dating from 40,000 years ago (which is currently the world's oldest) has been
Blakiston's Line and spiders, Hatta’s line (Soya line): for reptiles, amphibians and freshwater invertebrates, Hachisuka’s line for birds and Miyake’s line for insects. There has been speculation about why Blakiston was the person who discovered this faunal boundary line and no one before him had done so. Andrew Davis, who has been a professor at Hokkaido University for four years, argued that this may have been because of his unusual position in Japanese society as a European"." Blakiston spent much time researching bird species in Japan. At that time, Japanese ornithology was at its infancy. In 1886 Leonhard Stejneger remarked: "Our knowledge