Holarctic

[ ho-lahrk-tik, -ahr-tik, hoh- ]

adjective

, Zoogeography.

1. belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising the Nearctic and Palearctic regions.

Holarctic

/ həʊˈlɑːktɪk /

adjective

1. of or denoting a zoogeographical region consisting of the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions

Word History and Origins

Origin of Holarctic¹

First recorded in 1883; hol(o)- + Arctic

Word History and Origins

Origin of Holarctic¹

C19: from holo- + arctic

Example Sentences

But even experts like her wouldn’t be able to spot the difference between the California and Holarctic raven lineages without genetic analysis.

From National Geographic

This species would gradually cleave into two, the Holarctic raven and an ancestral western North American raven.

From National Geographic

What's more, DNA analysis suggests that these California breakoffs have been swapping DNA with the Holarctic ravens by interbreeding with them, causing these two branches on the raven family tree to join back into one species, the common raven—a merger that is apparently still ongoing today.

From National Geographic

In other words, the common raven created by the merging of the California and Holarctic lineages is not precisely the same common raven as the one that came before.

From National Geographic

A genetic analysis of 400 birds spanning the geographical range of the two populations suggests that the California and Holarctic lineages diverged between one and two million years ago, but more recently have merged together again and have been hybridising for at least tens of thousands of years.

From The Guardian