Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/167

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��THE ENVIEONMENT OP THE APE MAN

��Bt Pbofbssob EDWARD W. BERRY

JOHKS HOPKINS UNIVEBSITT

��K 1* that late epoch of the earth^s history which immediately preceded '^^ "the development of continental ice sheets, or the Pleistocene ffiei^l period in North America and Europe, we find but little evidence of wlia.t the next few thousand of years had in store for the rich ter- ^^al faunas and floras that had spread from Gibraltar to Korea and pro Dat>ly across the Bering land bridge between Asia and America, and OYeT a part of the latter continent.

The Pliocene age, as the era immediately preceding the Glacial period

^ termed, probably witnessed the most profuse and diversified mam-

^^lian life and arborescent flora that the world has ever seen. The


 * ^Una, sometimes known as the Hipparion fauna, from the abundance

^t that time of the small fleet horses of the Hipparion type, is somewhat


 * ^tteT known than the flora for the whole eurasian area, although for

ti^e area of Europe the flora is very well represented at a large number

of localities. The fauna as shown by the accompanying sketch map

(Fig. 1) has been traced from the Tagus Valley on the west to Korea

���Fig. 1. Skstch Map Showing Ranqb of ths Pliocxnb Hippabion Fauna and GsKAisB Bxtbnsion OF THB Ploba, 1, FUocene flora of HoUand-Pmsslan border. 2, Pliocene flora of Altai region.

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