The wanderings of animals / by Hans Gadow.

  • Hans Friedrich Gadow
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The wanderings of animals / by Hans Gadow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    classical six ‘ regions/ which he named Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Indian, Australian, Nearctic and Neo¬ tropical. Those of the Old World were brigaded as Palaeogaea and the two Americas as Neogaea, a fundamental mistake. Broadly speaking these six regions are equivalent to the great masses of land ; they are convenient terms for geographical facts, especially since palaearctic expresses the unity of Europe with the bulk of non-tropical Asia. Un¬ fortunately these regions are not of equal value. Therefore, instead of keeping up the popular dis¬ tinction between the Old and the New World, Huxley in 1868 gave reasons (cf. Gallinaceous birds) for dividing the world transversely, into an Arcto- gaea or North World in a wider sense, comprising N. America, Asia, with Europe and Africa; and Notogaea or South World, which he divided into New Zealand, Australasia and Austro-Columbia, the latter an unfortunate substitute for Neotropical. Although applicable to various groups of animals, the combination of S. America with Australia in opposition to the rest of the world was gradually found to be too sweeping a measure. The satis¬ factory solution was provided by W. T. Blanford, who in 1890 recognised three main divisions, namely Australian, South American and the rest, for which the already existing terms Notogaea, Neogea and Arctogaea have come into general use.
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