Editing Palearctic realm (section)

==Flora and fauna==
One bird family, the [[accentor]]s (Prunellidae), is endemic to the Palearctic region. The [[Holarctic]] has four other endemic bird families: the divers or [[loon]]s (Gaviidae), [[grouse]] (Tetraoninae), [[auk]]s (Alcidae), and [[waxwing]]s (Bombycillidae).

There are no endemic [[mammal]] orders in the region, but several families are endemic: Calomyscidae ([[mouse-like hamster]]s), [[Prolagidae]], and Ailuridae ([[red panda]]s). Several mammal species originated in the Palearctic and spread to the Nearctic during [[Last glacial period|the Ice Age]], including the [[brown bear]] (''Ursus arctos'', known in North America as the grizzly), [[red deer]] (''Cervus elaphus'') in Europe and the closely related [[elk]] (''Cervus canadensis'') in far eastern Siberia, [[American bison]] (''Bison bison''), and [[reindeer]] (''Rangifer tarandus'', known in North America as the [[caribou]]).

===Megafaunal extinctions===
Several large Palearctic animals became extinct from the end of the [[Pleistocene]] into historic times, including [[Irish elk]] (''Megaloceros giganteus''), [[aurochs]] (''Bos primigenius''), [[woolly rhinoceros]] (''Coelodonta antiquitatis''), [[woolly mammoth]] (''Mammuthus primigenius''), [[North African elephant]] (''Loxodonta africana pharaoensis''), [[Elephants in ancient China|Chinese elephant]] (''Elephas maximus rubridens''), [[cave bear]] (''Ursus spelaeus''), [[Straight-tusked elephant|Straight tusked elephant]] (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') and [[History of lions in Europe|European lion]] (''Panthera leo europaea'').