ABSTRACT
Many fossil species are only known from European deposits, but it is very hard to prove that they were actually endemic to Europe and the probability is against the assumption in most cases. One group of species may however be regarded as endemic: the aberrant inhabitants of ancient Tyrrhenis, the Mediterranean islands. In the living European fauna there are several endemic species, most of them insectivores and rodents, but also two larger animals, Felis pardina and Rupicapra rupicapra. Europe is part of the Palaearctic faunal province, which also includes Africa north of the Sahara and Asia north of the Himalayas. Most of the present-day European mammals range beyond Europe into some part of the remaining Palaearctic region. A few species may have originated more or less directly in North America. This may perhaps be suggested for Equus stenonis and very tentatively for Hypolagus brachygnathus and seems fairly certain for Bison bonasus.
