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
No one, I think, has done more in fostering a careful study of the
migrations of animals than our distinguished geologist Professor Boyd
Dawkins. He did not follow Bogdanov in distinguishing two Arctic
migrations; however, he did more in constructing a very ingenious chart
(_a_, p. 111) representing the geography of Europe during the last and
most recent geological epoch--the Pleistocene--and indicating on it the
probable extent, during that time, of an eastern and a southern
migration of mammals. The map is very instructive, and is the first ever
published giving a clear idea of a southern and an eastern migration to
Europe. He believed that the migration of the southern mammals
northward, took place conjunctly with the westward movement of the
eastern species. Having once reached Europe, the southern species are
supposed to have passed northward in summer time, whilst the eastern
forms (he calls them northern) would swing southwards. The two
migrations would thus occupy, at different times of the year, the same
tract of ground (_a_, p. 113). From the mingling of the remains of the
Hyæna with those of the Reindeer and Hippopotamus in the Kirkdale
Cavern, he infers that the former preyed upon the Reindeer at one time
of the year, and on the Hippopotamus at another. He argues that in such
a manner might be explained the curious mixture of northern and southern
types which we find in the British pleistocene and in cave deposits.
Besides mammals, the only European animals which have received some
attention with a view to a study of their origin, are the Butterflies
and the Land-Snails. The entomologists who have taken up the problem
have in so far scarcely produced satisfactory results, as they all
seemed to be bound down to the hypothesis that practically all the
butterflies had been destroyed in Europe during the Glacial period.
Hofman, in his interesting little work, comes to the conclusion (p. 50),
that only in Greece and Spain could a small remnant of the butterflies
have survived the extreme rigours of climate. Greece was at that time
connected with Asia Minor, and Spain with North Africa; and the author
supposes that the semi-alien fauna inhabiting these tracts was mainly
responsible for the re-stocking of Southern Europe, but that the main
mass of our butterflies are post-glacial Siberian immigrants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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