Gargano (Italian:[ɡarˈɡaːno]) is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of the Gargano Promontory projecting into the Adriatic Sea, the "spur" on the Italian "boot".
Position of the Gargano sub-region (highlighted in brown) within Italy: 'the spur on the boot of Italy'Gargano National Park, showing ancient woodlands of the Foresta UmbraPale limestone cliffs and islets typical of Gargano coast
The high point is Monte Calvo at 1,065m (3,494ft). Most of the upland area, about 1,200km2 (460sqmi), is part of the Gargano National Park, founded in 1991.
Other tourist attractions include San Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Santa Maria of Ripalta (Lesina) and the volcanic rocks, dating back to the Triassic Period, known as "Black Stones" in Lesina, as well as the Sanctuary of San Nazario.
The fossils are found in partially infilled paleokarst fissures across Monte Gargano. The Gargano Island fauna is known as Mikrotia fauna after an endemic rodentgenus of the area. Initially named Microtia, this had to be corrected, because the genus name Microtia was already used for butterflies.
The surface features of the ancient karst developed in Mesozoiclimestone. In these, sediment accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna, forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratified silty-sandyclays, 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.
Deinogalerix - 5 species of gymnures ("hairy hedgehogs"), among them the giant D. koenigswaldi with a skull of c.20cm 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 10cm 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)
Columba omnisanctorum - one of the oldest pigeon fossils known. It probably was more widespread and if so, the older name C. pisana would likely apply to it.
Garganoaetus freudenthali and Garganoaetus murivorus - two[3][4] 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-owlBubo 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.
According to Pellegrini,[6] Gargano is home to area IIIb of Southern Italo-Romance varieties. Each town, in turn, speaks its own sub-variety. The Candeloro (or Candelaro in Italian) river defines the boundaries of the promontory as well as the borders with area IIb (that of Foggiano varieties).[7]
Rosemary G. Gillespie, D. A. Clague (2009). Encyclopedia of Islands Número 2 de Encyclopedias of the natural world. University of California Press. p.374. ISBN9780520256491.
Valente, Vincenzo (1975). Profilo dei Dialetti italiani: Puglia/Salento. Pisa: Pacini.
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 Geologica77: 21–27. (includes full text PDF)
Freudenthal, M. (1972): "Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy." Scripta Geologica14: 1-19 (includes full text PDF)[1]
Freudenthal, M. (1976): "Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy)". Scripta Geologica37: 1-23 (includes full text PDF)
Freudenthal, M. (1985) "Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)". Scripta Geologica77: 29-76. (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 Electronica9.2.6A: 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 Geologica70: 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. ISBN80-901105-3-8PDF fulltext
Parra, V.; Loreau, M. & Jaeger, J.-J. (1999): "Incisor size and community structure in rodents: two tests of the role of competition". Acta Oecologica20(2): 93-101. doi:10.1016/S1146-609X(99)80021-6 (HTML abstract)
