Back Palearktiese gebied Afrikaans منطقة قطبية شمالية قديمة Arabic Paleárticu AST Palearktika Azerbaijani Палеарктыка Byelorussian Палеарктыка BE-X-OLD Палеарктика Bulgarian Paleoarktik BS Zona paleàrtica Catalan Palearktická oblast Czech
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The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions, variously spanning the Euro-Siberian region; the Mediterranean Basin; North Africa; North Arabia; and Western, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has numerous rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions.
Both the eastern and westernmost extremes of the Paleartic span into the Western Hemisphere, including Cape Dezhnyov in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug the to the east and Iceland to the west. The term was first used in the 19th century, and is still in use as the basis for zoogeographic classification.