Gargano landscape.

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 1,211.18 km² above the development along the coasts and in the lower valleys, is now a national park, Parco nazionale del Gargano, formed 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)
• 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.(Laeinders 1984, van der Geer 2005)
• Mikrotia - 3 or more species of murine rodent, the only burrowing member of its subfamily known to date. The largest species, M. magna, had a skull 10 cm long.(Freudenthal, 1976, Parra et al., 1999)
• Paralutra garganensis - an endemic species of otter
• Prolagus imperialis and P. apricenicus - huge endemic pika species- P. imperialis was larger than any other known Prolagus.(Mazza, 1987)
• Stertomys laticrestatus - a dormouse of large size. Apparently a monotypic genus.

Non-endemic mammals found on the island included:

• Apodemus gorafensis - a field mouse
• A prehistoric species of Cricetus hamster (Freudenthal, 1985)
• Hattomys - 3 species of giant hamster, at least some of which probably also occurred elsewhere.(Freudenthal, 1985)
• Megacricetodon - another hamster (Freudenthal, 1985)

Bird species occurring at Gargano included:

• Apus wetmorei, a swift.
• Columba omnisanctorum - one of the oldest pigeon fossils known; it probably was more widespread.
• Garganoaetus - two species of falconid, one larger than a Golden Eagle, the other well-sized; endemic.
• "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

References

• (1972): Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy. Scripta Geologica 14: 1-19
• (1976): Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy). Scripta Geologica 37: 1-23{7check}}
• (1985) Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy). Scripta Geologica 77: 29-76.
• (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.
• (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.
• (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe: 215. Ninox Press, Prague. ISBN 80-901105-3-8 PDF fulltext
• (1999): Incisor size and community structure in rodents: two tests of the role of competition. Acta Oecologica 20(2): 93-101. (HTML abstract)
• (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.

External links

• MonteGargano.it - News and tourism on the Gargano (in Italian - soon also in English)
• Parco Nazionale del Gargano (in English)
• Gargano - Tourism and Travel information (in English)
• Guida al Turismo sul Gargano (in Italian)
• Gargano - Travel & Tourism (in English)
• Pictures from the Gargano and Vieste (in Italian)

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