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Show 1897.] DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE MAMMALS. 355 in the Mediterranean and on the North African coast, and a second (M. tropicalis) being found in the West Indies. Mesatlantis is likewise the true home of the well-marked Sirenian genus Manatus, one species of which (M. americanus) frequents the coast of America and another (M. senegalensis) that of Africa. As regards the Cetaceans, we are not able to say that Mesatlantis, although well-furnished with many generic types of this Order, has any one peculiar to it. W e must therefore rest content with assigning two genera of Marine Mammals, Monachus and Manatus, as characteristic forms or topomorphs of the Sea-Mammal-life of Mesatlantis. VIII. The Indian Sea-region, or Indopelagia. The Marine Carnivora, so far as we know, are entirely foreign to Indopelagia, but the Sirenians are well represented by the Dugong (Halicore), wdiich pervades all its northern coasts from North Australia to India and the Red Sea and down the African coast to L a m u \ Whether the species of Halicore found at different points within this area are the same or different is still a matter of discussion, but there can be no doubt that Halicore is an exclusive inhabitant of Indopelagia. As regards the Whales of Indopelagia, we know that Physeter, Cogia, aud Ziphius, and numerous forms of Delphinldce occur there, but I am not aware of any Cetacean that is entirely restricted to this Sea-region. IX. The North Pacific Sea-region, or Arctirenia. As was pointed out when speaking of Arctatlantis, Arctirenia has one genus of Phocidce (Phoca) in common with the North Atlantic, and three of tbe species of this genus appear to be actually identical in these two Sea-regions, whilst a fourth Phoca (P. fasciata) is only found in the North Pacific. The Walrus (Trichechus) is again a form of Marine Mammals common to both the great northern Sea-regions. But the feature of Pinnipedian life that absolutely distinguishes Arctirenia from Arctatlantis is the presence in the former of three (if not four) well-marked species of the Eared Seals (Otariidce), which are absolutely unknown in the vast extent of the Atlantic down at least to 30° S. lat. Arctirenia has unfortunately lost its Sirenian, Steller's Sea-cow (Rhgtina stellerl), the largest and finest modern representative of this formerly prevalent group, which since the days of the Pleistocene has greatly diminished in numbers, but I think we may still treat Rhytina as one of the characteristic forms of the Arctirenian Sea-region. The North Pacific is also even at the present clay the sole possessor of a remarkable genus of Whalebone AVhales which combines the long head and elongate form of Balcenoptera with the smooth skin of the throat and absence of the dorsal fin of Balcena2. This is the Grey Whale, Rhachianectes glaucus of Cope, 1 A fine specimen of the Dugong from Lamu (on the east coast of Africa, lat. 2° 50' S.). obtained by Mr. J. C. Haggard in 1885, is in the British Museum. 2 Flower and Lydekker, 'Mammals,' p. 241. |