Mammals of the Caribbean

A unique and diverse albeit phylogenetically restricted mammal fauna is known from the Caribbean region. The region—specifically, all islands in the Caribbean Sea (except for small islets close to the continental mainland) and the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Barbados, which are not in the Caribbean Sea but biogeographically belong to the same Caribbean bioregion—has been home to several families found nowhere else, but much of this diversity is now extinct. The bat faunas of much of the Caribbean show similarities that led to the proposal of a distinct Caribbean faunal region, bounded by "Koopman's Line". This region excludes several of the region's islands, including the Grenadines, Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, and other islands near the American mainland, such as Margarita, Isla Escudo de Veraguas, Rosario Islands, Cozumel, and the Florida Keys.