Monte Gargano is a mountain in Apulia, Italy, forming the backbone of the peninsula Promontorio del Gargano on the Adriatic Sea. Most of the upland area, about 1,200 km² above the development along the coasts and in the lower valleys, is now part of a national park, the Parco nazionale del Gargano, founded in 1995. It is administratively part of the Province of Foggia.
Gargano is a peninsula partly mountainous and partly covered by
the remains of an ancient forest, Foresta
Umbra, the only remaining part in Italy of the ancient
oak and beech forest that once
covered much of Central Europe as well as the Appenine deciduous
montane forests biome. Horace spoke of the
oaks of Garganus in Ode II, ix.
Attractions
The coast of Gargano is rich in beaches and tourist facilities.
In the north are two major salt lakes Lesina and Varano. On the northern
side of Gargano and on the shores of the lake with the same name
stands the maritime town of Lesina. Monte Gargano
is the site of the oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to the
archangel Michael, Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano.
Today tourism is thriving with several hotels and campsites, in
particular along the seaside of Marina of Lesina, give the
possibility of staying in this suggestive area. Tourist attractions
include the cathedral, the episcopal palace, the Abbey of Santa
Maria of Ripalta and the volcanic rocks dating back to the Triassic
era, known as "Black Stones", as well as the Sanctuary of San
Nazario.
The National Park of Gargano is one of the few national
protected areas efficiently contributing to the "un Bosco per
Kyoto" enterprise, which in 2007 has involved several schools in
the realization of projects for a social and responsible tourism.
It is one of the most appreciated areas, unique for the decrease of
fires and for the politics of environmental awareness.
Annual
events
- St Primiano and the saint sailing-race on the 15th of May,
- St Nazario and the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary with the same
name on July 28;
- St Rocco’s Day on the 15th, 16th and 17th of August.
Gargano Peninsula fossils
Some 12 to 4 mya (million years ago) during the Late Miocene to
Early Pliocene, a highly endemic vertebrate fauna evolved on what
was then Gargano Island due to higher sea levels than today.
Several of these animals were subject to island gigantism.
Stratigraphy
The fossils are found in
partially infilled paleokarst fissures across Monte Gargano. The
Gargano Island fauna is known as Mikrotia fauna after an
endemic rodent genus of the area. Initially named Microtia,
this had to be corrected, because the genus name Microtia
(butterfly) was already used for butterflies.
The surface features of the ancient karst developed in Mesozoic
limestone. In these,
sediment accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna,
forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratified
silty-sandy clays, known as terrae
rossae ("red soils"). Through the
mid-Pliocene, some of these deposits were flooded, probably due to
tectonic movement of the Apulian Plate. Others were overlaid by
other sediments of terrestrial or freshwater origin.
In this way a buried, partially reworked paleokarst originated.
Later, as the ice ages cycle got underway, sea levels sank and
the former island was continentalized. In the cool and semiarid
conditions of the Early Pleistocene (some 1.8 - 0.8 mya) a second
karstic cycle occurred, producing the neokarst which removed part
of the paleokarst fill.
The
Mikrotia fauna
The Gargano Island endemic mammals included:
-
Deinogalerix - 5 species of gymnures ("hairy
hedgehogs"), among them the giant D. koenigswaldi with a
skull of c.20 cm length.(Freudenthal, 1972; Butler, 1980)
-
Hoplitomeryx - some 5 species of "prongdeer" with five
horns and sabre-like upper canine teeth. They ranged from tiny to
the size of a red deer, and large
and small ones apparently occurred at the same time rather than one
evolving from the other.(Leinders 1984, van der Geer 2005, van der
Geer 2008)
-
Mikrotia - 3 or more species of murine rodent. The
largest species, M. magna, had a skull 10 cm
long.(Freudenthal, 1976, Parra et al., 1999)
-
Paralutra garganensis - an endemic species of otter. (Willemsen,
1983)
-
Prolagus imperialis and P. apricenicus - huge
endemic pika species- P.
imperialis was larger than any other known
Prolagus.(Mazza, 1987)
-
Stertomys - 5 species of dormouse, among them the giant
S. laticrestatus (Daams and Freudenthal, 1985) and four
smaller species (Freudenthal and Martín-Suárez, 2006)
-
Hattomys - 3 species of giant hamsters, among them the
giant H. gargantua. (Freudenthal, 1985)
Non-endemic mammals found on the island included:
-
Apodemus gorafensis - a field mouse
- A prehistoric species of Cricetus hamster (Freudenthal,
1985)
-
Megacricetodon - another hamster (Freudenthal,
1985)
Bird species occurring at Gargano included (studied by Ballmann,
1973, 1976):
-
Apus wetmorei, a swift.
-
Columba omnisanctorum - one of the oldest pigeon fossils known;
it probably was more widespread.
-
Garganoaetus freudenthali and Garganoaetus
murivorus - two[] species of falconid, the former larger than a
Golden Eagle, the
latter well-sized; endemic. The smaller species, which likely is
the stratigraphically oldest, is closely related to Aquila
delphinensis from La Grive-Saint-Alban, France, according to
Peter Ballmann in 1973. Its closest living relatives are the small
eagles (Hieraaetus, Spizaetus,
Lophaetus).
-
"Strix" perpasta - a true owl, perhaps the same as the
widespread Bubo zeylonensis lamarmorae, a paleosubspecies of
the Brown Fish-owl (Mlíkovský 2002) but this taxon was usually
known from later times.
-
Tyto - 2 or 3 species of barn-owls. The largest, T.
gigantea, was up to twice as massive as the living eagle-owl
Bubo bubo. T. robusta was also large; this species
and the former were endemic but actually seem to have been
chronosubspecies. The supposed remains of the smaller T.
sanctialbani found at Gargano are now placed in the widespread
Tyto balearica.
- an indeterminate woodpecker.
See also
- Puglia
- Tavoliere delle Puglie
- Garganica, the local breed of goat
References
- Butler, M., 1980. The giant erinaceid insectivore, Deinogalerix
Freudenthal, from the upper Miocene of Gargano, Italy. Scripta
Geologica 57, 1-72.
- Daams, R., Freudenthal, M. (1985): "Stertomys
laticrestatus, a new glirid (dormice, Rodentia) from the
insular fauna of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)." Scripta
Geologica 77: 21-27.
[1] (includes full text PDF)
- Freudenthal, M. (1972): "Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov.
gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy."
Scripta Geologica 14: 1-19
[2](includes full text PDF)[]
- Freudenthal, M. (1976): "Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene
fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy)". Scripta
Geologica 37: 1-23
[3] (includes full text PDF) }
- Freudenthal, M. (1985) "Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene
of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)". Scripta Geologica
77: 29-76.
[4] (includes full text PDF)
- Freudenthal, M., Martín-Suárez, E. (2006): "Gliridae (Rodentia,
Mammalia) from the Late Miocene Fissure Filling Biancone 1
(Gargano, Province of Foggia, Italy)." Palaeontologia
Electronica 9.2.6A: 1-23.
- Leinders, J.J.M. (1984): "Hoplitomerycidae fam. nov.
(Ruminantia, Mammalia) from Neogene fissure fillings in Gargano
(Italy); part 1: The cranial osteology of Hoplitomeryx gen. nov.
and a discussion on the classification of pecoran families".
Scripta Geologica 70: 1-51, 9 plates.
- Mazza, P. (1987): "Prolagus apricenicus and Prolagus
imperialis: two new Ochotonids (Lagomorpha, Mammalia) of the
Gargano (Southern Italy)." Bollettino della Società
Paleontologica Italiana 26(3): 233-243.
- Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1:
Europe: 215. Ninox Press, Prague. ISBN 80-901105-3-8 PDF
fulltext
- Parra, V.; Loreau, M. & Jaeger, J.-J. (1999): "Incisor size and
community structure in rodents: two tests of the role of
competition". Acta Oecologica 20(2): 93-101.
doi:10.1016/S1146-609X(99)80021-6
(HTML abstract)
- Van der Geer, A.A.E. (2005): "The postcranial of the deer
Hoplitomeryx (Mio-Pliocene; Italy): another example of
adaptive radiation on Eastern Mediterranean Islands."
Monografies de la Societat d'Història Natural de les Balears
12: 325-336.
PDF fulltext
- Van der Geer, A.A.E. (2008): "The effect of insularity on the
Eastern Mediterranean early cervoid Hoplitomeryx: the study
of the forelimb." Quaternary International 182 (1):
145-159
PDF fulltext
- Willemsen, G.F., 1983. Paralutra garganensis sp. nov.
(Mustelidae, Lutrinae), a new otter from the Miocene of Gargano,
Italy. Scripta Geologica 72, 1-8
[5] (includes full text PDF)
External
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