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V.—Rodents from the Pleistocene of the Western Mediterranean Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

C. I. Forsyth Major
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Extract

In a former publication I have dealt with the anatomy of Prolagus sardus (Wagn.), from the Sardinian and Corsican Pleistocene, in comparison with that of its Tertiary relatives. The following pages deal with the geographical distribution of Pleistocene Prolagus and its bearing on more general questions.

When Ouvier discovered, in the ossiferous breccia of Corsica, remains of a ‘Lagomys,’ which he believed to be closely related to the Siberian Lagomys alpinus, he also suggested other analogies between the faunas of the two regions—Siberia and Corsica (as well as Sardinia), and commented upon the supposed relationship between the insular Mouflon and the Siberian Argali. Similar views were expressed by B. Wagner.

Pumpelly, Loeard, and Lortet sought to establish a connection between a supposed Corsioan ‘ice-age,’ as attested by the trace of ancient glaciers, and the former existence in the island of a supposed inhabitant of cold regions, the Lagomys corsicanus. Hensel had, however, shown before, in 1856, that the affinities of Lagomys sardus from the Sardinian bone breccia are not with the recent Lagomys (Ogotona), but with a Miocene type, for which he proposed the generic name Myolagus (antedated by Prolagus, Pormel). He was in consequence inclined to assume a Tertiary age for the breccias in which the Prolagus occurred (and, indeed, for the whole of the Mediterranean bone breccias). A similar view has again been brought forward of late years.

I myself pointed out (1) that the Corsican Lagomys likewise belonged to the genus Prolagus, as indeed had already been suspected by Hensel from his inspection of Cuvier's figures; (2) that the Tertiary age of the Corsican and Sardinian breccias could not be upheld, above all, because the mollusca occurring in them, as Loeard bad shown to be the case in the ossiferous breccia of Toga, near Bastia, are still living in the neighbourhood.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 2 , Issue 10 , October 1905 , pp. 462 - 467
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1905

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References

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page 465 note 1 Op. cit., p. 122.

page 465 note 2 Kosmos, vol. vii, p.6 (1883).

page 465 note 3 Arch. Mus. Hist. Lyon, vol. i, p. 43 (1872).

page 465 note 4 Atti sc. Nat.; Proc. Verb., vol. iv, pp. 139–145 (1884).

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page 466 note 2 Op. cit., p. 763.

page 466 note 5 Op. cit., p. 695.

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page 466 note 5 “Some of the brightest records of the military glory and prowess of our country are indissolubly connected with Gibraltar. A great nation like England cannot afford to neglect, or disregard without reproach, whatever bears on the natural history or archæology of so renowned a possession’ (Busk, & Falconer, , in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, vol. xxi, p. 368, 1865).Google Scholar Meanwhile, we leave it to French geologists to set us right on the geological age of the ‘rock’ (see Suess, , “La Face de la Terre,” vol. i, p. 229, footnote 4, 1897;Google Scholar and Lapparent, “Traité de Géologie,” 4th ed., p. 1098, 1900), and to a German malacologist to enlighten us on the recent malacological fauna of Gibraltar (see Kobelt, , “Studien zor Zoogeographie,” vol. ii, pp. 225, 243, 1898).Google Scholar And last, not least, we throw away (undeveloped) palæontological collections brought together under exceptionally favourable circumstances by an enthusiastic collector.

page 466 note 6 “From this fissure ton-loads of mammalian remains were obtained during the scarping of the cliffs, but unfortunately these have long been dispersed” (Ramsay, & Geikie, J, in “Geology of Gibraltar,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. London, vol. xxxiv, p. 521, 1878).Google Scholar