Abstract
OWING to the unique and extremely interesting nature of the fauna in Lake Tanganyika, the study of which was recently the object of an expedition supported by the Royal Society, and led by Mr. J. E. S. Moore, a Committee has been formed, consisting of Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S. (late British Resident at Zanzibar), Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S. (secretary to the Zoological Society), Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, C.M.G., F.R.S. (director of Kew Gardens), Prof. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. (director of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum), and Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. (of the British Museum), for the purpose of organising another expedition to the same regions, to thoroughly survey the basin, not only of Lake Tanganyika, but also the unknown portions of the northern extension of the great series of valleys in which Tanganyika, together with Lakes Kivu and the Albert Nyanza, lie; to collect specimens of the aquatic fauna and flora, and to study the geological history of this part of Africa. The latter object of the investigation should be of especial interest, for it was shown by Mr. Moore that almost without exception the shells of the singular series of whelk-like molluscs, captured by him in Tanganyika, are indistinguishable from those now found fossilised in Europe, among the remains of old Jurassic seas. It would thus appear that at some remote period of time, the great valley of Tanganyika was in connection with the sea, and that the strangely isolated marine fauna, which still inhabits its slightly brackish waters, has remained there ever since. So far only the Medusae (jelly-fish), the Mollusca, and the Crustacea, belonging to this antique fauna, have been discovered in the lake; but when its vast size and depth are fully realised, it is unquestionable that by far the larger portion of its fauna is as yet unknown.
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The Zoological Exploration of the Great African Lakes. Nature 59, 152–153 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/059152a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059152a0