On the Mammalian Fauna of the Val d'Arno

Abstract

§ 1. Introductory. The Fauna of the Val d'Arno. In the following essay on the fossil mammalia of the Val d'Arno I have subjected the list of species to a critical examination and brought it down to the knowledge of to-day. It will be sSen from the following lists that i have been able to add a considerable number of species to those known in former years. § 2. Relation to the Older Faunas . On the boundary-line between the Miocene and Pliocene we find in southern Europe, and especially ia the region of the Mediterranean, and also as far to the east as the Siwalik mountains of India, a richly developed fauna in which the Hipparion is the most widely spread and important representative. This fauna is met with at Pikermi in Attica, at Concud, and at Alcoy in Spain, at Oraa and Constantine in Algeria, at Montpellier and Merit Léberon (Cucuron) in :France, at Casino near Siena, in Italy, at :Eppelsheim in Germany, as well as in Austria-Hungary, the Balkan peninsula, and in Asia Minor. Not one of the members of the fauna discovered in these localities occurs in the somewhat younger fauna of the Val d'Arno. Yarious relations are certainly to be pointed out. The two Pliocene Antelopes, Palæoryx Meneghinii , Rüt., from Olivola in the valley of the Magra, and Palæoreas montis caroli , in the valley of the Arno, are closely allied to species of the same genera found in Pikermi. The same intimate relation exists between the