bed in this country. It contains the Cervus carnutorum and Trogontherium Cuvieri, in association with the Pliocene Rhinoceros etruscus and Elephas meridionalis, the two former of which are peculiar to it and the forest-bed. Although, therefore, there is no trace that any of the Northern Asiatic animals had yet arrived in Europe, the group most probably belongs to the early Pleistocene, since it is characterized by the presence of two non-Pliocene animals[1].
11. Pleistocene Fauna of Southern Europe.
The fauna of Italy and Spain is remarkable for the absence of the Arctic forms which were so abundant in Central France and Germany; and there is no doubt that the difference between the fauna of the region north of the Alps and Pyrenees and that of the south is due to a difference of latitude and to the fact that the climatal change so marked in the north was hardly felt in the south. In other words, the physical condition of Britain during the early stage of the Pleistocene, and which did not recur again, was maintained throughout the Pleistocene period in the districts above mentioned. It is therefore no wonder that in the Pleistocenes of Italy we find the Mammoth associated with Rhinoceros etruscus, R. megarhinus, Elephas antiquus, and the Hippopotamus in the valley of the Tiber, and in the Val di Chiana with the Urus, Bison, and Irish Elk, just as in the Forest-bed of Norfolk[2]. But it does not follow from this that the Italian deposits are synchronous with the Forest-bed; for it is almost certain that, while the arctic mammalia were invading North-eastern Europe and had taken possession of Britain and the north of France, the Pliocene fauna of the south was scarcely affected; and it is reasonable to suppose that, even while the climate of Europe was lowered to the utmost in the Glacial period, the cold was not sufficient to allow of the invasion of the southern latitudes by the Arctic group of mammalia. The same observation applies also to Spain, in which M. Lartet has identified the African Elephant and the Striped Hyæna, as well as palæolithic implements, near Madrid.
The explorations of Capt. Broome[3] in the caves of Gibraltar prove that the Grizzly Bear, Spotted Hyæna, Panther, Rhinoceros hemitœchus. Ibex, and many other animals mentioned in the above list lived in the Iberian peninsula during the Pleistocene age. In both Italy and Spain at that time the facies of the animal life was southern, and was not subject to those changes which are observable in Britain and France.
Fauna of Sicily, Malta, and Crete.
The investigations of Dr. Falconer[4] in the caves which occur in
- ↑ Lartet, 'La Seine,' par M. Belgrand, vol. ii. p. 206. Geryais, 'Animaux vertébrés vivants et fossiles,' 4to, 1867–69, p. 32.
- ↑ Falconer, ' Palæont. Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 242.
- ↑ 'International Congress of Prehistoric Archæology,' Norwich, 1868, p. 106; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxi. p. 364.
- ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol, xvi. p. 99; Palæont. Memoirs, vol, ii, p. 545.
