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
Wallace Line Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok. The distance between Bali and Lombok is small, about . The distributions of many bird species observe the line, since many birds do not cross even the shortest stretches of open ocean water. Some bats have distributions that cross the line, but larger terrestrial mammals are generally limited to one side or the other; exceptions include macaques, pigs and tarsiers on Sulawesi. Other groups of plants and animals show differing patterns, but the overall pattern is striking and reasonably consistent. Flora do not follow the Wallace Line to the same extent as fauna. One