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Show CHANGE OJI CLIMATE 94: 1' . · belong to ex t.m e t species ' but wh1e' re tvmg organic remams . tb t a theory of c tmate can speci.e s ab oun d m. a fossil . state, a . '1 I h' t m crucis In Stcl y' sc Ia, be subjected to the exhen;e~lu testacea .of the more recent and Calabria, where t . e 1 o~si cies now known to inhabit strata belong almost entire y h ol sp~ t remarks that individuals the Mediterranean,. the con~ ~n o;h:ir averag~ size their living in the inland deposits dexcebet be entertained, on the ground 1 * Yet no ou can 'fi 'd t't ana ogue~ • . . dimensions, of their spect c 1 en 1 y, of such dtffer~~ce I? tl~e~r uals attain sometimes, though rarely, because the hvmg mdtvt£d '] d so perfect is the prescrva- . of the oss1 s ; an h · the average stze h th retain in some instances, t etr tion of the latter' t at dde!t. nal eiement of comparison. 1 h · h affords an a 1 10 d co our, w ~~ h wards in the Italian peninsula, an pass As we pio~eed nort . that of extinct volcanos-from from the regto~ of active, tol d from time to time, to those districts now v10le~tly conv; ~e b d by earthquakes, we find which are comparahvel~ u~ ~s u~n c the modern (Subapennine) the assemblage of foss s e ' . 1 from the type of the strata, to depart somewhat more ~~~~ yof species, identifiable neighbouring se~s: ~he l pr~o~. terranean, is still considerwith those now hvmg m t te ~ e 1 in the South of Italy, able ; but it no longer p~edom~~~~~ a~ occurring in localities over the unknown spectes. ~ ther from the equator which a~e removed severa~ ~egr)eet~e as~ells yield clear indica· (as at Stenna, Parma, Astt, c. ' f l common to the tions of a I1 otter c1 t' ma te • Many. 0 t1em ared t the Indian Suba ennine hills, to the Mediterranean, ~n . ? alo ues Ocea~ Those in the fossil state, and their livhm~ ad~ 'd~als from t•h e tropics, correspou d m· s·t ~e ; whereas t dew mar fiIsVhl and of the same species from the Mediterranean are . s· '1 some from an elevation "' I collected several hundred species of shells m.IlC l yl '. tly from an eleva· of several thousand feet, and £o r ty specl·e s or more m fs cl lu a,c opmarp ared with recen t tion of above one thousand feet, and these were car~/ y lit seas Not only shells procured by Professor 0. G. Costa! fro~ the . h e~fose a:ow li~ing, buttho were the fossil species for the most part J~enhcal m.t th strata and in the sea relative abundance in which different species occur m e . e of the fossil corresponds in a remark a bl e manner. Yet the larger av. erage fS ltZh e fossil sheI I s individuals of many speci.e s was very st riking . A co.m pthan sonll eoc tion of Pl'ofessor of the more modern strata of CalalJria and Otrauto, 111 e co Costa, afforded similar results. IN TilE NORTHERN IIEMlSPIIERE. 95 degenerate, and stunted in their growth, for want of conditions which the Indian Ocean still supplies*. 'rhis evidence amounts to demonstration, and is not neutralized by any facts of a conflicting character; such, for instance, as the association, in the same group, of individuals refenible to species now confined to arctic regions. On the contrary, whenever any of the fossils shells are identified with living species fot·eign to the Mediterranean, it is not in the Northern Ocean, but between the tropics, that they must be sought t. On the other hand, the associated unknown species belong, for the most part, to genera which are either exclusively limited to equinoctial regions, or are now most largely developed there. Of the former, the gel.1US Pleurotoma t is a remarkable example; of the latter, the genus Cyprrea §. When we proceed to the central and northern parts of Europe, far from the modern theatres of volcanic action, and where there is no evidence of considerable inequalities of the earth's surface having been produced since the present species • Professor Guidotti, of Parma, whose collection of Subapennine shells is unrivalled, and who has obtained from the North of Italy above twelve hundred species, showed me n~merous suites of specimens in a fossil state, as well as from the Mediterranean and Indian seas, illustrating these views. Among other examples, the Bulla. lignaria, a very common shell, is invariably found fossil of tho same magnitude as it now reache!l in the Indian sea, and much smaller in a living state in the Mediterranean. The common Orthoceras of the Mediterranean, 0. raphanista, attains larger average dimensions in a. fossil, than in a recent state. Professor Bonelli, of Turin, who bas above eight hundred species of shells from the Subapennines in the public museum, pointed out to me many examples, iu confirmation of the same point. t Thus, for example, Rostellaria curvirostris, found fossil by Signor Bonelli near Turin, is only known at present as an Indian shell. Murox cornutus, fossil at Asti, is now only known recent in warmer latitudes, the only localities given by Linnrous and Lamarck being tho Mrican and Great Indian Oceans. Conus nntediluvianns cannot be distinguished from a shell now brought from Owhyhec, Among other familiar instances mentioned to me by Italian naturalists, iu confirmation of the same point, Buccinum clathratum, Lam.was cited; but Professor Costa assured me that this shell, although extremely rare, still occurs in the Mediterranean. t Of the genus Pleurotoma, no living representative has yet been found in the Mediterranean ; yet no less than twenty-five species are now to be seen in tho museum at Turin, all procured by Professor Bonelli from tho Subapennine strata of northern Italy. In a fossil state, they ure associated with many shells, specifi. callyidentical with testacea, now living in the Mediterranean. ~ The genus Cyprooa is re11resented by many large fossil species in the Subapennine hills, with which are associated one small, and two minute S!>ecies of tho same genus, which alone are now fonnd in tho Mediterranean, |
