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Castle Museum, Norwich NR1 3JU, UK
Department of Geology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Terrestrial vertebrate faunas (mammals, reptiles and amphibians) from the Middle and Upper Pleistocene of Britain, Ireland and adjacent Continental Europe are compared. Problems arise from uncertainties of status and correlation of stages. Evidence of insularity is provided by reduced diversity in (a) Britain versus the Continent, and (b) Ireland versus Britain. British temperate/interglacial faunas older than the Last Interglacial are very similar to Continental faunas, notably the Cromerian faunas of West Runton, England, and Voigtstedt, Germany. The earliest indications of insularity are in Last Interglacial faunas, in which, for example, pine voles Pitymys spp., extinct rhinoceros Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis, horse Equus ferus and humans, present in equivalent Continental faunas, are absent from Britain. Local extinction of horses and humans is implied. The British Last Cold Stage (Devensian) faunas are very similar to those of the adjacent Continent, indicating unimpeded migration. However, Irish Last Cold Stage faunas are impoverished (absences include woolly rhinoceros Coelodonta antiquitatis and humans), indicating no connection from Ireland to Britain. Early Holocene separation of Britain is reflected in the absences of several small vertebrates found on the adjacent Continent. Irish Holocene faunas are much more impoverished, lacking, for example, voles, frogs and snakes, indicating continued isolation from Britain.
