On a supposed Resemblance between the Marine Faunas of the Arctic and Antarctic Regions

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Main Author: Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1899
• Subjects: General Engineering; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*; Antarktis*; Arktis*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0370164600051257; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0370164600051257

The view that a peculiar likeness exists between the northern and southern extra-tropical faunas, and particularly between those of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, was suggested by Théel in discussing the remarkable deep-sea group of the Elasipoda , whose discovery we owe to the Challenger Expedition. A somewhat similar view is hinted at or referred to more than once in other Reports of the same Expedition. It was afterwards stated in an ampler way by Pfeffer ( Versuch über die Erdgeschichtliche Entwickelung der jetzigen Verbreitungsverhältnisse unserer Thierwelt , 1891), and has of late been dealt with in great detail, and in relation to the antecedent causes that might have led to such a phenomenon, by Sir John Murray. On the other hand, Dr Ortmann, considering the hypothesis from the point of view of our knowledge of the distribution of Crustacea, has rejected it entirely (“Uber Bipolarität in der Verbreitung mariner Thiere,” Zool. Jahrb. , 1896; cf. also “Marine Organismen und ihre Existenzbedingungen,” ib. , 1897), and Dr Chun, dealing with the pelagic fauna (“Die Beziehungen zwischen dem arktischen und antarktischen Plankton,” Stuttgart, 1897), while showing how in truth a certain small number of forms are common to far northern and far southern seas, holds that the facts are sufficiently accounted for by the continuous distribution or gradual intermixture of forms in the depths of the intervening oceans under present conditions, without our needing to have recourse to an explanation of the phenomenon in the different conditions of a former age.