428 the age of mammals 



4. The Fourth, Post-Pleistocene, or Modern Fauna 



We now enter the recent, Holocene, or Neolithic age. The mammals 

 of this epoch differ from the three preceding Pleistocene Faunas in the 

 extinction of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, as well as of the 

 cave bear, lion, hyaena, species which left no descendants; and finally in 

 the retreat to the north and northeast of the highly specialized tundra 

 and steppe types. 



There remained in the plains and mountains of Europe the forest- 

 meadow, the pure forest, and the alpine types, all direct descendants of the 

 mammals of preceding stages. It is remarkable that no new mammals 

 appear except those introduced by Neolithic man. The fauna of early 

 Neolithic times is directly sequent upon that of late Palaeolithic times. 

 This fauna has been discovered in the Swiss lake dwellings ^ (Fig. 176, 38- 

 40) at Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, Robenhausen, Concise, etc. In the peat bogs 

 of Hassleben (41), etc., in the travertines of Jena, Langensalza (42), etc. ,2 

 have been found the following mammals : 



Bison honasus, the European bison, still surviving in Lithuania. 

 Bos priinigenius, collateral ancestor of the long-horned larger existing 



cattle of western Europe. The 'urus,' of Caesar's text, surviving 



in Germany until the twelfth century. 

 Bos longifrons, the 'Celtic short-horn,' the probable ancestor of the 



small breeds of British short-horned and hornless cattle. 

 Cervus elaphus, the red deer or stag . 

 Cervus capreolus, the roe deer. 

 Alces machlis, the elk or moose. 

 Rangifer tarandus, the reindeer, surviving in central Europe until the 



twelfth century. 

 Cervus dama, the fallow deer, replacing the giant deer. 

 Capra ibex, the ibex of the mountain or alpine fauna. 

 Rupicapra tragus, the chamois of the mountain fauna. 

 Sus scrofa ferus, the wild boar. 

 Sus scrofa palustris, the turf pig. 

 Equus caballus celticus, the Celtic pony, representative of the 



' plateau ' t3T3e. 

 Equus caballus typicus, the Norse, or ' forest ' horse. 

 Castor fiber, the beaver. 

 Sciurus vidgaris, the common squirrel. 

 Lepus timidus, the European hare. 

 Lepus variabilis, the arctic hare, in Ireland and the north. 



1 Riitimeyer, L., Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten der Schweiz. Neue Denkschr. allg. schweiz. 

 Gesell. gesam. Naturwiss., Vol. XIX. Zurich, 1862. 



2 Pohlig, H., Vorlaufige Mittheilungen iiber das Plistocaen, insbesondere Thiiringens. 

 Sitzungsber. Niederrhein. Ges. Bonn, Mar. 3, 1884, pp. 2-15. 



