Abstract
IN the opportunity it affords for the study of the part man plays in the evolution of a fauna, the animal life of Scotland stands alone. This is largely due to a series of geological accidents: the Glacial Period, which made a clean sweep of former faunas; the postglacial continental land bridge, which allowed immigration from the mainland of Europe, and the subsequent breaking of the continental connexion. Thus there was isolated on the tabula rasa of Scotland a fair sample of the post-glacial European fauna, which henceforth was removed from the possibility of subsequent migrations such as complicate the history of continental faunas, and the later evolution of which must in general be due either to the influence of physical and organic changes limited in time and space, or to the interference of man.
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RITCHIE, J. Man and Scottish Animal Life. Nature 112, 169–170 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112169a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112169a0