A Geographical History of MammalsUniversity Press, 1896 - 400 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
ancestral animals antelopes appear Arctic Asia Austro-Malayan belong Borneo Burma Carnivora Celebes Cervus Ceylon characteristic cheek-teeth closely allied common confined connection Dasyurida deer deposits distinct distribution Dorcatherium Dr Blanford Dr Wallace Eastern Arctog¿a elephants Eocene Ethiopian region Europe European evidence exclusively existing fauna Felis former forms fossil genera genus Himalaya hippopotamus Holarctic Holarctic region hy¿na incisor includes India Indian Pliocene inhabiting Insectivora islands Java known latter lemuroids lemurs likewise lower jaw Madagascar Malagasy Malay Peninsula Malayan sub-region mammalian fauna mammals marsupials migration Miocene molar teeth Monte Hermoso nearly allied Neog¿a Neog¿ic North America Notog¿a occur Old World Oligocene opossums Oriental region origin Pampean Patagonia peculiar perissodactyle Pikermi Pliocene portion probably range realm regarded remains represented restricted Rhinoceros rodents Santa Cruz beds single species Siwalik skull Sonoran region South southern sub-family Sumatra Tertiary tropical types typical genus Ungulata ungulates unknown upper molar West western whole zoological
Popular passages
Page 362 - Boreal. of the latter, and occupying the summits of the Coast Ranges in California and of many of the desert ranges of the Great Basin. "The Transition zone, as its name indicates, is a zone of overlapping of Canadian and Sonoran types.
Page 138 - The West Indian Islands have been long isolated and have varied much in extent. Originally, they probably formed part of Central America, and may have been united with Yucatan and Honduras in one extensive tropical land. But their separation from the continent took place at a remote period, and they have since been broken up into numerous islands, which have probably undergone much submergence in recent times. This has led to that poverty of the higher forms of life, combined with the remarkable...
Page 345 - The retreat of cold at the termination of this period was not complete, and our continent has never regained its former warmth. Hence the expelled species were not permitted to advance more than a short distance into the region formerly occupied by them, and the tropical species have been held back and at the present day are not found except along the extreme southern confines of our territory. For example, peccaries in early Pleistocene times ranged northward over a large part of western America,...
Page 345 - The llama and many plants now inhabiting the Andes may be looked upon as representing a class of cases in which Boreal forms were driven so far south that they actually reached the great mountain system of South America and spread southward over its elevated plateaus and declivities to the extreme end of the continent in Patagonia and Terra del Fuego.
Page 224 - ... length than would otherwise have been necessary because of its importance, and because this is a crucial case. So far as I am able to judge, every circumstance as to the distribution of life is consistent with the view that the...
Page 130 - ... have attained their wonderful multiplicity and diversity of forms in Austro-Columbia and Australasia simply in consequence of the very favourable nature of the conditions to which they have been exposed in that country. "I confess I incline to the latter supposition. The distribution of Psittacula, for instance, is quite unintelligible to me upon any other supposition than that this genus existed in the Miocene epoch, or earlier, in Northern Arctogaea, and has thence spread into Austro-Columbia,...
Page 45 - R^ton""*" the Sandwich Islands, which from their bird-fauna are regarded as entitled to distinction from the Polynesian region. Of the birds of this area, Mr WL Sclater ' writes that the greater number not only of the species, but even of the genera " are peculiar and wholly restricted to these islands. It is, of course, among the smaller land-birds (Passeres) that this individuality is most marked; but even in the other groups, where the distribution is generally wider, the Hawaiian birds are, in...
Page 5 - ... temperature predetermines the possibilities of distribution ; it fixes the limits beyond which species cannot pass ; it defines broad trans-continental belts within which certain forms may thrive if other conditions permit, but outside of which they cannot exist, be the other conditions never so favourable.
Page 124 - The distinctness is, however, by no means confined to mammals and birds. Of the land molluscs, Mr AH Cooke1 writes that they present a marked contrast to those of North America. " Instead of being scanty, they are exceedingly abundant ; instead of being small and obscure, they are among the largest in size, most brilliant in colour, and most singular in shape that are known to exist. At the same time they are, as a whole, isolated in type, and exhibit but little relation with the Mollusca of any...
Page 24 - Not only is there clear proof that some land-areas lying within continental limits have at a comparatively recent date been submerged over 1000 fathoms, whilst sea-bottoms now over 1000 fathoms deep must have been land in part of the Tertiary era, but there are a mass of facts both geological and biological in favour of land-connection having formerly existed in certain cases across what are now broad and deep oceans.