Position of the Gargano sub-region (highlighted in brown) within Italy: 'thespur on the boot of Italy'Gargano National Park, showing ancient woodlands of the Foresta UmbraPale limestone cliffs and islets typical of Gargano coast
Gargano (Italian:[ɡarˈɡaːno]) is a historical and geographical sub-region in theprovince of Foggia,Apulia, southeastItaly, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of apromontory projecting into theAdriatic Sea, the "spur" on the Italian "boot".
The high point is Monte Calvo at 1,065 m (3,494 ft). Most of the upland area, about 1,200 km2 (460 sq mi), is part of theGargano National Park, founded in 1991.
The Gargano peninsula is partly covered by the remains of an ancient forest, Foresta Umbra, the only remaining part in Italy[citation needed] of the ancientoak andbeech forest that once covered much of Central Europe as well as theApennine deciduous montane forestsecoregion. The Latin poetHorace spoke of the oaks ofGarganus inOde II, ix.
In this region since 1978 a feud has been fought between the clans of theSocietà foggiana.[1]
Other tourist attractions includeSan Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Santa Maria of Ripalta (Lesina) and the volcanic rocks, dating back to theTriassic Period, known as "Black Stones" in Lesina, as well as the Sanctuary of San Nazario.
The Gargano peninsula is associated with the Gargano fauna, also referred to as theTerre Rosse ("Red Soils") fauna or theMikrotia fauna. Between theMiocene and theearly Pliocene, this area consisted of large island that included both the modern Gargano peninsula proper and adjacent parts of peninsular Italy, with other locales associated with its fauna having been found inScontrone andPalena, Abruzzo. Like other island endemic environments, the Gargano fauna was notably unbalanced. Mammals were represented chiefly by rodents and other microfauna, all of which displayedisland gigantism, alongside a single species of marine otter and one native genus of ruminants. Birds were also well-represented, including both giant and flightless species, and birds of prey made up a large proportion of the island's native predators.[3][4] Among the rodents,glirids were especially diverse.[5]
Thefossils have been primarily recovered from partially infilled paleokarstfissures across Monte Gargano. Locales in Abruzzo consist instead of marine and beach deposits.[3]
Early descriptions of the Gargano fauna speculated that it originated from a single colonization event through a directland bridge or a series of close islands, either through theApennines chain or from theBalkan peninsula, potentially associated with the desiccation of the Mediterranean basin during theMessinian salinity crisis in the late Miocene. This was challenged beginning in the 1980s on the basis of the low and fragmented biodiversity of the fauna and the "staggered" appearance of new taxa, suggesting multiple waves of colonization through indirect methods such as rafting or flying during periods of low sea level.[3] Some paleontologists, beginning with P.M. Butler in 1980, have speculated that the Gargano fauna was "seeded" by a surviving relic of an older continental fauna later added to by invasions of other species, in part to account for the presence of animals like amphibians that cannot easily cross saltwater.[3][6]
The surface features of the ancientkarst developed inMesozoiclimestone. In these,sediment accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna, forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratifiedsilty-sandyclays, known asterrae rossae ("redsoils"). Through the mid-Pliocene, some of these deposits were flooded, probably due totectonic movement of theApulian Plate. Others were overlaid by other sediments ofterrestrial orfreshwater origin. In this way a buried, partially reworked paleokarst originated.[citation needed]
Later, as theice ages cycle got underway, sea levels sank and the former island was continentalized. In the cool andsemiarid conditions of theEarly Pleistocene (some 1.8–0.8 mya) a second karstic cycle occurred, producing the neokarst which removed part of the paleokarst fill.[citation needed]
Deinogalerix - 5 species ofgymnures ("hairy hedgehogs"), among them the giantD. koenigswaldi with a skull of c.20 cm length. (Freudenthal, 1972; Butler, 1980[6])
Hoplitomeryx - some 5 species of "prongdeer" with five horns and sabre-like uppercanine teeth. They ranged from tiny to the size of ared 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 ofmurine rodent. The largest species,M. magna, had a skull 10 cm long. (Freudenthal, 1976, Parraet al., 1999)
Paralutra garganensis - an endemic species ofotter. (Willemsen, 1983)
Prolagus imperialis andP. apricenicus - huge endemicpika species.P. apricenicus is smaller and found in most deposits, whileP. imperialis is much larger and only known from younger deposits. (Mazza, 1987)[3]
Stertomys - 5 species ofdormouse, among them the giantS. laticrestatus (Daams and Freudenthal, 1985) and four smaller species (Freudenthal and Martín-Suárez, 2006)
Hattomys - 3 species of giant hamsters, among them the giantH. gargantua. (Freudenthal, 1985)
Columba omnisanctorum - one of the oldestpigeon fossils known. It probably was more widespread and if so, the older nameC. pisana would likely apply to it.
Garganoaetus freudenthali andGarganoaetus murivorus - two[7][8] species offalconid, the former larger than agolden eagle, the latter well-sized; endemic. The smaller species, which likely is the stratigraphically oldest, is closely related toAquila 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 - atrue owl, perhaps the same as the widespreadBubo zeylonensis lamarmorae, apaleosubspecies of thebrown fish-owl (Mlíkovský 2002) but thistaxon 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 livingeagle-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 smallerT. sanctialbani found at Gargano are now placed in the widespreadTyto balearica.
According to Pellegrini,[10] Gargano is home toarea IIIb of Southern Italo-Romance varieties. Each town, in turn, speaks its own sub-variety. TheCandeloro (orCandelaro in Italian) river defines the boundaries of the promontory as well as the borders with area IIb (that ofFoggiano varieties).[11]
^abButler, P.M. (1980). "The giant erinaceid insectiovreDeinogalerix Freudenthal from the upper Miocene of the Gargano, Italy".Scripta Geologica.57:1–72.
^Rosemary G. Gillespie, D. A. Clague (2009).Encyclopedia of Islands Número 2 de Encyclopedias of the natural world. University of California Press. p. 374.ISBN978-0-520-25649-1.
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.[1] (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[2](includes full text PDF)[1]
Freudenthal, M. (1976): "Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy)".Scripta Geologica37: 1-23[3] (includes full text PDF)
Freudenthal, M. (1985) "Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)".Scripta Geologica77: 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 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 andProlagus 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.ISBN80-901105-3-8{{isbn}}: ignored ISBN errors (link)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 Oecologica20(2): 93-101.doi:10.1016/S1146-609X(99)80021-6 (HTML abstract)
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