124 SALVADOR CALDERON ON THE FOSSIL 



7. On the Fossil Yertebrata hitherto discovered in SrAiN. By 

 Seiior Salvador Calderon, Professor of Natural History in the 

 Institute of Las Palmas. (Read November 22, 1876.) 



(Communicated by the President.) 



The fossil forms, like the living, have their zoological geography 

 more marked in proportion to the development of life upon our 

 planet ; and for this reason, even if there were no other, it becomes 

 a duty on the part of those who devote themselves to this branch of 

 science in Spain, to furnish all the aid possible towards an elucida- 

 tion of the problems which present themselves to the inquirer, not- 

 withstanding the little attention paid to our scientific literature 

 throughout Europe, already deplored by the great geologist De Yer- 

 neuil*. With respect to the subject of this paper, it is necessary 

 to bear in mind that no catalogue has ever been made, even of the 

 summary kind which we are about to present, and that our mate- 

 rials have been collected from a large number of periodicals (Spanish, 

 English, French, and German), extending over a period of about 

 thirty years. 



' The palaeontology of our peninsula presents many interesting fea- 

 tures in its relations to the natural conditions of the soil. For ex- 

 ample, the migrations of quadrupeds, which have caused the for- 

 mation, in the greater part of Europe, of deposits of remains at a 

 considerable distance from each other, must have been difficult in 

 the Peninsula from the most remote time, and this has given rise to 

 certain peculiarities in our mammalian fauna. Except by continuity, 

 even in recent time, with the African continent, how can we explain 

 the discovery of the Hycena brunnea, the leopard, the serval, the 

 lynx, and the deer of Barbary in a cave at Gibraltar? 



Other important results of these studies is the discovery in the 

 centre of Spain of remains of the Sivatherium, well-marked, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Falconer, and also of Hycenarctos, mentioned by Paul 

 Gervaisf, it having been previously generally believed that these 

 Mammalia had never inhabited Europe, and were confined exclu- 

 sively to Asia. 



The discovery of the types in question confirms the inductions 

 which form the doctrine of modern science, and the theory of the 

 uninterrupted development of organic beings, the Yertebrata be- 

 ginning with fishes and Labyrinthodonts, and continuing with 

 reptiles, birds, and Mammalia. It is also a confirmation in this part 

 of the world of Owen's arrangement of the four classes of Mammalia. 



But it is well known that the importance of the study of fossil 

 Yertebrata is not limited to its palaeontological and geological in- 



* Coup d'ceil sur la constitution geologique de plusieurs provinces de l'Espagne. 

 Paris: 1852. 

 t Bull, de la Sec. Geol. de France, vol. x. 



