Gargano (, Gargano Apulian Italo-Romance arˈgæːnə is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia,

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

, southeast

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of the Gargano Promontory projecting into the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to th ...

, the "spur" on the Italian "boot". The high point is Monte Calvo at . Most of the upland area, about , is part of the Gargano National Park, founded in 1991. In this region since 1978 a feud has been fought between the clans of the Società foggiana. The Gargano peninsula is partly covered by the remains of an ancient forest, ''Foresta Umbra'', the only remaining part in Italy of the ancient oak and

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

forest that once covered much of Central Europe as well as the Apennine deciduous montane forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

. The Latin poet

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

spoke of the oaks of ''Garganus'' in '' Ode'' II, ix.

Tourism

The coast of Gargano houses numerous beaches and tourist facilities, including resorts such as Vieste, Peschici and Mattinata. The two major

salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre) ...

s of Lesina and Varano are located in the northern part of the peninsula. Gargano is the site of the oldest shrine in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

dedicated to the archangel Michael, Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano. Other tourist attractions include San Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Santa Maria of Ripalta (Lesina) and the volcanic rocks, dating back to the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...

Period, known as "Black Stones" in Lesina, as well as the Sanctuary of San Nazario.

Annual events

* St Primiano and the saint sailing-race on 15 May * St Nazario and the pilgrimage to the Sanctuary with the same name on July 28 * St Rocco's Day on 15, 16 and 17 August in Rignano Garganico *Procession of the
Fracchie
' on

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Holy ...

in San Marco in Lamis * Saint Valentine's day in Vico del Gargano *Pilgrimages (
cumpagnie
') to the shrine of San Michele Arcangelo in Monte Sant'Angelo on May 8 and September 29 *Gargano Running Week is held in October, the first time in 2014 and includes trail running, skyrunning, jogging, ultra distance running and speed running. The 10 K and the half marathon are supervised by FIDAL.

Gargano Peninsula fossils

Some 12 to 4 million years ago, during the

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million years ago) to 5.333 Ma. The ...

Early Pliocene Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * ...

, a highly

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with ...

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is '' flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. ...

evolved Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variati ...

on what was then Gargano Island due to higher

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

s than today. Several of these animals were subject to island gigantism. Puglia MonteSAngelo1 tango7174

The

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are found in partially infilled paleokarst

fissures A fissure is a long, narrow crack opening along the surface of Earth. The term is derived from the Latin word , which means 'cleft' or 'crack'. Fissures emerge in Earth's crust, on ice sheets and glaciers, and on volcanoes. Ground fissure A ...

across Monte Gargano. The Gargano Island fauna is known as ''

Mikrotia ''Mikrotia'' is an extinct rodent belonging to the Muridae. It lived during the upper Miocene (about 11.63 - 5 million years ago) and its fossil remains have been found in Italy (Gargano). The type species is ''M. magna'', although two other sp ...

'' fauna after an endemic

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of the area. Initially named ''Microtia'', this had to be corrected, because the genus name ''

Microtia Microtia is a congenital deformity where the auricle (external ear) is underdeveloped. A completely undeveloped pinna is referred to as anotia. Because microtia and anotia have the same origin, it can be referred to as microtia-anotia. Microti ...

'' was already used for

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

. The surface features of the ancient

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, Dolomite (rock), dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathe ...

developed in

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

. In these,

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

accumulated together with the remains of the local fauna, forming thick layers of reddish, massive or crudely stratified

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

s, known as ''terrae rossae'' ("red

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former ...

s"). Through the mid-

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

movement of the

Apulian Plate The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate carrying primarily continental crust that broke away from the African Plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. The name Adriatic Plate is usually used when referring ...

. Others were overlaid by other sediments of terrestrial or

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

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 The Early Pleistocene is an unofficial sub-epoch in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently estimated to span the time ...

(some 1.8–0.8 mya) a second karstic cycle occurred, producing the neokarst which removed part of the paleokarst fill.

Fauna

The Gargano Island endemic

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...

s included: * ''

Deinogalerix ''Deinogalerix'' (from Ancient Greek, "terrible/terror" + ''Galerix'') is an extinct genus of gymnure which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene, 7-10 million years ago. The genus was apparently endemic to what was then the island of Gargano, wh ...

'' - 5 species of gymnures ("hairy hedgehogs"), among them the giant ''D. koenigswaldi'' with a skull of c.20 cm length. (Freudenthal, 1972; Butler, 1980) * '' 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 The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of ...

, 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 of

murine The Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae, comprise at least 519 species. Members of this subfamily are called murines. In terms of species richness, this subfamily is larger than all mammal families ex ...

rodent. The largest species, ''M. magna'', had a skull 10 cm long. (Freudenthal, 1976, Parra ''et al.'', 1999) * ''Paralutra garganensis'' - an endemic species of

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes we ...

. (Willemsen, 1983) * '' Prolagus imperialis'' and ''P. apricenicus'' - huge endemic pika species- ''P. imperialis'' was larger than any other known ''Prolagus''.(Mazza, 1987) * ''Stertomys'' - 5 species of dormouse, among them the giant ''S. laticrestatus'' (Daams and Freudenthal, 1985) and four smaller species (Freudenthal and Martín-Suárez, 2006) * ''Hattomys'' - 3 species of giant hamsters, among them the giant ''H. gargantua''. (Freudenthal, 1985) Non-endemic mammals found on the island included: * '' Apodemus gorafensis'' - a field mouse * A prehistoric species of '' Cricetus'' hamster (Freudenthal, 1985) * ''Megacricetodon'' - another hamster (Freudenthal, 1985) Bird species occurring at Gargano included (studied by Ballmann, 1973, 1976): * ''

Apus Apus is a small constellation in the southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. First depicted on a celestial globe by Pet ...

wetmorei'', a swift. * ''

Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is tod ...

omnisanctorum'' - one of the oldest pigeon fossils known. It probably was more widespread and if so, the older name ''C. pisana'' would likely apply to it. * ''Garganoaetus freudenthali'' and ''Garganoaetus murivorus'' - two species of falconid, the former larger than a

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird ...

, the latter well-sized; endemic. The smaller species, which likely is the stratigraphically oldest, is closely related to ''Aquila delphinensis'' from La Grive-Saint-Alban, France, according to Peter Ballmann in 1973. Its closest living relatives are the small eagles ('' Hieraaetus'', '' Spizaetus'', '' Lophaetus''). * ''

Garganornis ballmanni ''Garganornis'' (meaning "Gargano bird") is an extinct genus of enormous flightless anatid waterfowl from the Late Miocene of Gargano, Italy. The genus contains one species, ''G. ballmanni'', named by Meijer in 2014. Its enormous size is thoug ...

'', an extinct flightless giant goose-like waterfowl * ''"Strix" perpasta'' - a true owl, perhaps the same as the widespread ''Bubo zeylonensis lamarmorae'', a

paleosubspecies A chronospecies is a species derived from a sequential development pattern that involves continual and uniform changes from an extinct ancestral form on an evolutionary scale. The sequence of alterations eventually produces a population that is p ...

of the

brown fish-owl The brown fish owl (''Ketupa zeylonensis'') is a fish owl species in the family known as typical owls, Strigidae. It is native from Turkey to South and Southeast Asia. Due its wide distribution it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. ...

(Mlíkovský 2002) but this

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

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 The American (North and South America) horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus ''Bubo'', at least as traditionally described. The genus name ''Bubo'' is Latin for the Eurasian eagle-owl. This genus contains 19 species that ...

'' 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 Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions ...

Languages

According to Pellegrini, Gargano is home t
area IIIb
of Southern Italo-Romance varieties. Each town, in turn, speaks its own sub-variety. Th
Candeloro (or ''Candelaro'' in Italian)
river defines the boundaries of the promontory as well as the borders with area IIb (that of Foggiano varieties).

References

Sources

* 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 Geologica'' 77: 21–27

(includes full text PDF) * Freudenthal, M. (1972): "''Deinogalerix koenigswaldi'' nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy." '' Scripta Geologica'' 14: 1-1

includes full text PDF) * Freudenthal, M. (1976): "Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy)". '' Scripta Geologica'' 37: 1-2

(includes full text PDF) * Freudenthal, M. (1985) "Cricetidae (Rodentia) from the Neogene of Gargano (Prov. of Foggia, Italy)". '' Scripta Geologica'' 77: 29-76

(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 Electronica'' 9.2.6A: 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 Geologica'' 70: 1-51, 9 plates. * * Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): ''Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe'': 215. Ninox Press, Prague. PDF fulltext
!-- This should be treated with extreme caution as regards merging of species. Splits are usually good though. See also critical review in Auk121:623-627 here http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3793/is_200404/ai_n9396879 --> * Parra, V.; Loreau, M. & Jaeger, J.-J. (1999): "Incisor size and community structure in rodents: two tests of the role of competition". ''Acta Oecologica'' 20(2): 93-101. (HTML abstract) * * * (includes full text PDF)

External links

Official Tourism InformationPictures from the Gargano and Vieste
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gargano Peninsulas of Italy Geographical, historical and cultural regions of Italy Mountains of Apulia Former islands of Italy Peaks dedicated to Michael (archangel) Michael (archangel)