Mammals of Five Distinct Geographic Regions
(Compare Color Map, Pl. II, and Fig. 15)
As we have already observed, during the whole history of mammalian life in various parts of the world never did there prevail conditions so unusual and so complex as those which surrounded the men of the Old Stone Age in Europe. The successive races of Palæolithic men in Europe were all flesh eaters, depending upon the chase. The mammals, first pursued only for food, utensils, and clothing, finally became subjects of artistic appreciation and endeavor which resulted in a remarkable æsthetic development.
From the beginning to the end of Palæolithic times the various races of man witnessed the assemblage in Europe of animals indigenous to every continent on the globe except South America and Australia and adapted to every climatic life-zone, from the warm and dry plains of southern Asia and northern Africa to the temperate forests and meadows of Eurasia; from the heights of the Alps, Himalayas, Pyrenees, and Altai Mountains to the high, arid, dry steppes of central Asia with their alternating heat of summer and cold of winter; from the tundras or barren grounds of Scandinavia, northern Europe, and Siberia to the mild forests and plains of southern Europe.[(71)] Members of all these highly varied groups of animals had been evolving in various parts of the northern hemisphere from the Eocene Epoch onward. In Pliocene times they had become thoroughly adapted to their various habitats. Throughout early Pleistocene times, with the increasing cold extending southward from the arctic circle, such mammals as the elephant, rhinoceros, musk-ox, and reindeer had become thoroughly adapted to the climate of the extreme north. There is every reason to believe that when these tundra quadrupeds first arrived in Europe, during early mid-glacial stages, they had already acquired the heavy coat of hair and undercoating of wool, such as now characterizes the musk-ox, one of the living representatives of this northern fauna.
MIGRATIONS AND EXTINCTIONS OF MAMMALIAN LIFE DURING THE
FOUR GLACIAL, THREE INTERGLACIAL, AND POSTGLACIAL STAGES
| Recent Prehistoric. | Return of the Alpine Mammals to the Mountains. | Period of Recent Animals. | ||
| Wide dispersal of Forest and Meadow Mammals over the Northern Hemisphere. | ||||
| Retreat of the Tundra and Steppe Mammals to the North and East. | Reindeer Period IN Western Europe. | |||
| Postglacial. Severe climate. | Mingling in the lowlands of France and Germany of the Reindeer-Mammoth fauna, the Alpine fauna, the Steppe Mammals, and the hardy Eurasiatic Forest and Meadow Mammals. | |||
| IV. Glacial. Cold Steppe climate. | Arrival of the Tundra Mammals from the North. | |||
| Arrival of the Steppe Mammals from Western Asia. | ||||
| Southward migration and extinction of all the African-Asiatic Mammals except the lions and hyænas. | ||||
| 3d Interglacial. Warm climate. | Mingled African-Asiatic and Eurasiatic Mammals in different parts of the non-glaciated regions, the hippopotamus, southern mammoth, straight-tusked elephant, Merck's broad-nosed rhinoceros, lion, hyæna, jackal, sabre-tooth tiger. | Period OF THE Hippopotamus, Rhinoceros, AND Elephant. Also OF THE Stag AND Bison IN Western Europe. | ||
| III. Glacial. | Reindeer and Woolly Mammoth in North Germany and the Alps. | |||
| 2d Interglacial. | Also the stag, giant deer, bison, wild cattle, forest horse, boar, wolf, fox, lynx, wildcat, several species of bear. | |||
| II. Glacial. | Reindeer and Woolly Mammoth in Northern Germany. | |||
| 1st Interglacial. | Survival of many Pliocene African-Asiatic Mammals, mingled with Pliocene and recent Eurasiatic Forest and Meadow Mammals. | |||
| I. Glacial. | Musk-ox in Sussex, England. | |||
| Geologic and Climatic Stages. | Early Migrations of Scandinavian and North Siberian Mammals near the Ice-fields. | 'Warm' African-Asiatic Mammals. | More hardy Eurasiatic Mammals. | Three Chief Life Periods. |
| Temperate and sheltered parts of Western Europe. | Cool temperate forests and meadows. | |||
| Regions near the Ice-fields and Glacial Borders. | More Sheltered Non-Glaciated Regions Remote from the Glacial Borders and Ice-fields. | |||
The five great sources of mammalian migration into western Europe in Pleistocene times were accordingly as follows:
1. Warm plains of northern Africa and of southern Asia. "African-Asiatic" fauna—hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephant.
2. Temperate meadows and forests of Europe and Asia. "Eurasiatic" fauna—deer, bison, horse.
3. High, cool mountain ranges—Alps, Pyrenees, Caucasus, Urals. Fauna—chamois, ibex, ptarmigan. (See Fig. 185.)