GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS: CONTINENTS 259 



In Africa we find lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, many 

 kinds of antelopes, giraffes, zebras, hyenas, lemurs, baboons, monkeys 



with narrow noses and nonprehensile tails, chimpanzees, and gorillas, to 

 enumerate only a random sample. 



In South America we find not a single one of the animals just listed. 

 South America has monkeys, to be sure, but they are quite unlike their 

 African relatives; many have broad noses and other distinguishing fea- 

 tures, including prehensile tails which serve as a fifth limb as they swing 

 through trees. In South America are (Fig. 12.1) (1) tapirs, representing 

 the odd-toed, hoofed mammals; (2) a group of rodents of which the 

 capybara, agouti, and paca are perhaps the best known (our guinea pig is 

 a domesticated relative); (3) mountain lions (panthers), ocelots, and 

 jaguars as representatives of the cat family; (4) llamas, guanacos, vicufias, 

 and alpacas as representatives of the camel family. There are also deer 

 (absent from Africa except in the neighborhood of the Mediterranean 

 Sea), armadillos, many species of opossums, giant anteaters, raccoons, 

 spectacled bears, chinchillas, peccaries, and sloths, those slow-moving 

 arboreal animals which hang beneath the branches of trees instead of trav- 

 eling on their upper surfaces. Furthermore, before white men overran 

 the earth the two continents differed as markedly in their human popula- 

 tions as they did in their lower animals. The greater part of Africa was 

 inhabited by various types of Negroes, while South America was inhabited 

 by various types of Indians. 



While we have stressed the differences between the mammalian faunas 

 of these two continents, we do not wish to convey the impression that no 

 groups of animals have representatives in both. Such widely ranging ani- 

 mals as bats, rats, mice, squirrels, hares and rabbits, and members of the 

 cat, dog, weasel, and swine families occur in both continents. Despite this 

 fact, however, differences outweigh similarities. 



Why do these geographically similar continents differ so markedly in 

 their animal populations? We shall defer the answer to this question until 

 we have gained a more comprehensive view of animal distribution on 

 other continents. We may note in passing, however, that for some people 

 the answer is simple and clear. It is possible to be satisfied with the explana- 

 tion that these continents have their present inhabitants because the latter 

 were created in place, so to speak. Lions were created in Africa, not in 

 South America; jaguars were created in South America, not in Africa, and 

 so on. For people contented with this explanation the final answer has 

 been given and there is nothing left to explain. Such an "explanation" re- 

 moves the whole matter from the field of scientific inquiry. 



