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HENRIK W. WALDEN 



character than has the North American. But in spite of this it is remarkably 

 conservative in comparison with most other animal groups, known by 

 fossil evidence, as well as with the vascular plants. Szafer (1954) stated that 

 the Euro-Asiatic element in the Pliocene constituted only between 6 and 20 

 per cent of the flora in southern Poland. For the rest, now disappeared 

 American and East Asiatic species dominated. 



In Table 2 the extracontinental relations of the European land Gastropoda 

 are elucidated. It may be emphasized that Transcaucasia and Macaronesia 

 (the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands) have been counted with 

 Europe. In this connection it is worth mentioning that the Macaronesian 



Table 2 



* Marine littoral genera, with their special dispersal ecology, play a certain role also in 

 the European gastropod fauna. Among the Archeo- and Holotropical genera four extinct 

 and four recent ones represent this group. The two recent, strictly terrestrial genera, here 

 classified as Holotropical, Cecilioides and Coilostele, are discussed in the text. 



t The South and East Asiatic group includes nine marine littoral genera, all extinct 

 in Europe. 



1 Concerning the heterogenous group of North American-East Asiatic genera (Gastio- 

 roplo, Strobilops and Catinella), cf. second note to Table 1, and the text. 



§ Among the recent European-Palearctic genera, 124 are exclusively European, the re- 

 maining ones occurring also in NW. Africa and/or the Orient, in a few instances also with 

 adjoining areas in tropical Africa. Six genera have a more or less wide distribution also in 

 temperate Asia. The two genera reaching North America, Umax and Cepaea, are discussed 

 in the text. 



Cf. also the caption to Fig. 1. 



gastropod fauna, which is the taxonomically most independent and most 

 isolated partial fauna of the region, is decidedly an offshoot of the early 

 Tertiary Mediterranean and west European fauna. The affinities to other 

 regions are very insignificant. 



In a case where an entirely extinct genus shows clear taxonomical affinities 

 to, for example, recent South Asiatic genera, it has been classified as South 

 Asiatic, even if it has only been found in Fin-opc. 



