FAUNAL RELATIONSHIPS. 79 



FAUNAL RELATIONSHIPS. 



There can be no reasonable doubt but that in the past Cuba has been sub- 

 jected to a number of fundamental changes of level. Anunonites of Jurassic 

 age are found in Pinar del Rio (Puerto de Ancon, Viiiales, San Diego de los 

 Bafios) while m the central provinces Barettia, hippuritids and similar fossils 

 bear evidence of depression there. Thus we may imagine Cuba as having been 

 an archipelago by the evidence of these marine deposits and by the fact as well 

 that so many of the sierras have their own very distinct faimulae of terrestrial 

 molluscs. These often point to curious possible connections in the past. The 

 axis of the Sierra Maestra, if prolonged, would reach out to the Cayman Islands 

 and to Swan Island and the relationships of the land shells suggest some such 

 condition in the past. So also the molluscs of the sierras of the Island of Pines 

 and those of Camaguey point to a relationship far more intimate than exists at 

 present. The amphibians and reptiles, because of their ability to spread with 

 comparative ease in a region where no great natural barriers exist, are rather 

 homogeneously distributed throughout the Island. Nevertheless there are 

 conspicuous exceptions such as the two remarkable toads Bufo longinasus and 

 B. ramsdeni. 



The connection at some time in the past of Cuba with both Yucatan and 

 Haiti is very strongly indicated by the fauna, not only among the reptiles and 

 amphibians but in very many other groups.^ 



Since Cuba is by far the largest of the Antilles in area it is by no means 

 surprising to find that it supports the largest number of species of reptiles and 

 amphibians of any of the islands, there being no less than seventy species at pres- 

 ent recorded. Two of these appear to have been introduced, while no less than 

 fifty-two are peculiar to Cuba. The Cuban fauna differs in some important 

 respects from that of either Jamaica, Haiti, or Porto Rico. The presence of 

 Phyllobates, Tretanorhinus, Arrhyton, Norops, and Cricosaura bespeaks a close 

 relationship to the neighboring continent, in which the other islands have not 

 shared. So, also, the presence of no less than four species of Bufo, only one of 

 which, B. empusus, has close allies in B. gutturosus of Haiti, B. lemur of Porto 

 Rico, and B. turpis of Virgin Gorda. While of the others B. peltacephalus is 

 not so very unhke some of the continental forms, but B. longinasus and B. 



'For a discussion of the Antillean land bridges see Bull. M. C. Z., 1910, 52, p. 275-285; Mem. 

 M. C. Z., 1914, 44, p. 214-237; Ann. N. Y. acad. sci., 1916, 27, p. 1-15. 



