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. Ammonites of Jurassic 
age are found in Pinar del Rio (Puerto de Ancon, Vifiales, San Diego de los 
Bafios) while in 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 faunulae 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 molluses 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 unlike 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. 
