The History of the European FaunaScharff, R. F. (Robert Francis)
History
The History of the European Fauna
Scharff, R. F. (Robert Francis)
Animals -- Europe; Zoogeography
The fauna of the Arctic Regions is much poorer than that of the other
regions which are dealt with in this work. In some groups, such as
Reptiles and Amphibia, there are no representatives at all, but no doubt
a larger number of species existed there in earlier Tertiary times. At
least we have fossil evidence that during the Miocene Epoch plants of
many families flourished in Greenland of which no vestige is now left in
the Polar area. Climatic conditions must therefore have changed, as in
Europe. A gradual refrigeration took place, owing probably to the slow
withdrawal of the current which supplied the Arctic Sea with warmth.
Greenland and Europe were then connected, and the Arctic Ocean was
separated from the Atlantic. This land-connection is supposed to have
lain far north between Scandinavia, Spitsbergen, and Greenland, and must
have persisted until towards the end of the Glacial period.
As the temperature decreased and the land-area available in the north
diminished, the surplus population, consisting of animals and plants,
and possibly also of human beings, moved southward. We have traces in
Europe, and especially in the British Islands, of a very early migration
from the north in the so-called American plants and in the freshwater
sponges. The geographical distribution of some of the Arctic species of
mammals is referred to in greater detail, to show how the relative age
of their entry into Europe can be determined. Two forms of Reindeer,
resembling the Barren-ground and Woodland varieties, have been met with
in European deposits, but only the former occurs in Ireland and the
south of France, whilst eastward the other becomes more common, and
finally is the only one found. It is believed that the Barren-ground is
the older form as far as Europe is concerned, and that it came to us
with the Arctic migration, and that the other Reindeer reached Europe
much later from Siberia, when Ireland had already become detached from
England. The range of the Arctic Hare is equally instructive. It must
have been a native of Europe since early glacial or pre-glacial
times--before the common English Hare had made its appearance in Central
Europe. Along with other Arctic forms, it entered Northern Europe
directly from the Arctic Regions, by means of the former land-connection
which joined, as I remarked, Lapland with Spitsbergen, Greenland, and
North America. There need not have been a post-glacial connection
between Europe and Greenland; the present flora of that country may have
survived the Glacial period in the Arctic Regions, as has been
maintained by some botanists and other authorities. Professor Forbes
argued from the occurrence of the same species of shore mollusca on the
coast of Finmark and Greenland that these two countries were not long
ago joined, so that a slow migration from west to east along an ancient
coast-line could have taken place. That such a migration actually
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