The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 2: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surfaceWallace, Alfred Russel
Science
The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Volume 2: With a study of the relations of living and extinct faunas as elucidating the past changes of the Earth's surface
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Paleontology; Zoogeography
_Fresh-water fish._--Since the British Museum catalogue was published, a
valuable paper by Dr. Günther, in the Transactions of the Zoological
Society for 1868, furnishes much additional information on the fishes of
Central America. In that part of the region south of Mexico, 106 species of
fresh-water fishes are {55}enumerated; and 17 of these are found in streams
flowing into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On the whole, 11
families are represented among the fresh-water fish, and about 38 genera.
Of these, 14 are specially Nearctic,--_Amiurus_ (Siluridæ); _Fundulus_
(Cyprinodontidæ); _Sclerognathus_ (Cyprinidæ); and _Lepidosteus_
(Ganoidei). A much larger number are Neotropical; and several Neotropical
genera, as _Heros_ and _Poecilia_, are more largely developed here than in
any other part of the region. There are also a considerable number of
peculiar genera;--_Petenia_, _Theraps_, and _Neotrophus_ (Chromides);
_Ælurichthys_ (Siluridæ); _Chalcinopsis_ (Characniidæ); _Characodon_,
_Belonesox_, _Pseudoxiphophorus_, _Platypoecilus_, _Mollienesia_, and
_Xiphophorus_ (Cyprinodontidæ). A few peculiar Antillean forms are also
present; as _Agonostoma_ (Mugilidæ); _Gambusia_ and _Girardinuus_
(Cyprinodontidæ). The other families represented are Percidæ (1 genus);
Pristopomatidæ (2 gen.); Gobiidæ (1 gen.); Clupeidæ (2 gen.); and Gymnotidæ
(1 genus).
On the whole the fish-fauna is typically Neotropical, but with a small
infusion of Nearctic forms. There are a considerable proportion of peculiar
genera, and almost all the species are distinct from those of other
countries. The predominant family is that of the Cyprinodontidæ,
represented by 12 genera; and the genus _Heros_ (Chromidæ) has here its
maximum development, containing between thirty and forty species. Dr.
Günther considers that a number of sub-faunas can be distinguished,
corresponding to some extent, with the islands into which the country would
be divided by a subsidence of about 2,000 feet. The most important of these
divisions is that separating Honduras from Costa Rica, and as it also
divides a very marked ornithological fauna we have every reason to believe
that such a division must have existed during the latter portion of the
tertiary epoch. We shall find some farther evidence of this division in the
next class.
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