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«Pre-human fauna» is a 28 minute documentary that deals with the existence of fauna on the island of Menorca before human colonization. It begins by sending the viewer back a few million years when the connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean was found through what is currently the valley of Guadalquivir.
After the European and African tectonic plates collided and the aforementioned connection was closed off, the Mediterranean began to dry up until the level of the sea declined by 1000 metres, and hence the islands were joined together with the continents. This was a time of great exchanges in the flora and fauna of the region. The inhabitants of the island moved to other areas and were later substituted by new colonizing species. The largest of these new animals was a goat, that after the separation at the straits of Gibraltar (as the sea had begun to fill up again), and after a few million years had passed, became endemic to these islands, seeing as it obtained unique morphological qualities which differentiated it from any other around the world. The movement of the tectonic plates is illustrated throughout the documentary, as well as how it affected the Mediterranean Sea, and the species which habituated the area like rabbits, tortoises, shrews, and several other large species. We also see how the arrival of human beings, about 4,000 or 5,000 years ago, has affected the island of Menorca, the last of the Mediterranean lands to be colonized. |
