B.Ethiopian Region.
C.Indian Region.
Plate XLII.I. MAP,Showing the distribution of Living (Blue) and Fossil (Red)Lemuroidea.
I. MAP,Showing the distribution of Living (Blue) and Fossil (Red)Lemuroidea.
I. MAP,Showing the distribution of Living (Blue) and Fossil (Red)Lemuroidea.
Plate XLIII.II. MAP,Showing the distribution of the FamilyTarsiidæ(Blue), and the Sub-familyGalaginæ(Red) of theLemuridæ.
II. MAP,Showing the distribution of the FamilyTarsiidæ(Blue), and the Sub-familyGalaginæ(Red) of theLemuridæ.
II. MAP,Showing the distribution of the FamilyTarsiidæ(Blue), and the Sub-familyGalaginæ(Red) of theLemuridæ.
D.Australian Region.
E.Nearctic Region.
F.Neotropical Region.
The above tables show that during the Eocene epoch of the Tertiary Period theLemuroideawere confined to the Palæarctic and Nearctic Regions; and, if the geological record were more perfect, we should probably find that they were distributed across the greater part of the Northern Hemisphere, which at that period was sub-tropical in climate. Outside these two regions no Lemuroid remains have been found after the close of the Eocene (with the exception of the solitary Lower Miocene genusLaopithecus) till the Recent Period, when the superficial deposits of Madagascar have yielded the sub-fossilMegaladapis madagascariensisand a large undescribed species (probably of a new genus) ofLemuridæ, both of which may have been living in the historic period. At the present day Lemuroids are unknown in either the Palæarctic or Nearctic Regions, and, with the exception of four species, none are now found outside the Ethiopian Region.
TheAnthropoidea, on the other hand, first appear in the Neotropical Region, in the upper Eocene, but the age of the Santa Cruz formation, in which the remains occur, has not yet been settled with certainty. In the Eastern Hemisphere they appear in the Mid-Miocene, and continue through the Pliocene, the Pleistocene and Recent deposits. As yet no remains have been found in the Nearctic Region, where Lemuroid remains occur so abundantly.
The subjoined tables indicate the number of species in each of the six great Zoo-Geographical Regions, followed by others showing those peculiar to, and those living and fossil in, the various sub-divisions of these Regions:—
Gen. ined.
Bathrodon
Cercopithecidæ.
The following is a sketch of the past and present distribution of the Primates in the different Sub-regions and Provinces recognised by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in his paper on the "Zoo-Geographical Areas of the World" already referred to.