Fauna of Australia in Australia, feeding on sea grass in coastal areas. The destruction of sea grass beds is a threat to the survival of this species. Eleven species of seal—family Pinnipedia—live off the southern coast. Australia and its territories are home to around 800 species of bird; 45% of these are endemic to Australia. The fossil record of birds in Australia is patchy; however, there are records of the ancestors of contemporary species as early as the Late Oligocene. Birds with a Gondwanan history include the flightless ratites (the emu and southern cassowary), megapodes (the malleefowl and Australian brush-turkey), and a huge
The Birds of Australia (Mathews) has stressed largely the nomenclatural aspect, a phase of ornithology which received little attention from John Gould in the eight folio volumes of his highly valued work, "The Birds of Australia". Gould seldom listed a date, and therefore he failed to recognize occasionally that another name listed by him was really older than the name used by him. He was a firm believer in the use of the prior name; this he showed by changing when necessary to an older name. These two great ornithological works which have the same title, and of which Australians are justly proud are thus