Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
The Cyrena fluminalis of Menchecourt and the hippopotamus of St. Roch
seem to be in favour of a less severe temperature in winter; but so
many of the species of mammalia, as well as of the land and freshwater
shells, are common to both formations, and our information respecting
the entire fauna is still so imperfect, that it would be premature to
pretend to settle this question in the present state of our knowledge.
We must be content with the conclusion (and it is one of no small
interest), that when Man first inhabited this part of Europe, at the
time that the St. Acheul drift was formed, the climate as well as the
physical geography of the country differed considerably from the state
of things now established there.
Among the elephant remains from St. Acheul, in M. Garnier's collection,
Dr. Falconer recognised a molar of the Elephas antiquus, Figure 19, the
same species which has been already mentioned as having been found in
the lower-level gravels of St. Roch. This species, therefore, endured
while important changes took place in the geographical condition of the
valley of the Somme. Assuming the lower-level gravel to be the newer,
it follows that the Elephas antiquus and the hippopotamus of St. Roch
continued to flourish long after the introduction of the mammoth, a
well characterised tooth of which, as I before stated, was found at St.
Acheul at the time of my visit in 1860.
As flint hatchets and knives have been discovered in the alluvial
deposits both at high and low levels, we may safely affirm that Man was
as old an inhabitant of this region as were any of the fossil quadrupeds
above enumerated, a conclusion which is independent of any difference of
opinion as to the relative age of the higher and lower gravels.
The disappearance of many large pachyderms and beasts of prey from
Europe has often been attributed to the intervention of Man, and no
doubt he played his part in hastening the era of their extinction; but
there is good reason for suspecting that other causes co-operated to
the same end. No naturalist would for a moment suppose that the
extermination of the Cyrena fluminalis throughout the whole of Europe--a
species which co-existed with our race in the valley of the Somme, and
which was very abundant in the waters of the Thames at the time when
the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus flourished on its banks--was
accelerated by human agency. The great modification in climate and in
other conditions of existence which affected this aquatic mollusc, may
have mainly contributed to the gradual dying out of many of the large
mammalia.
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