The Lost Land of Lemuria (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Sumathi Ramaswamy
- First Published: 2004
- Type of Work: Anthropology, history, and history of science
- Time of Work: About 1840-2000
- Setting: The Indian and Pacific Oceans
- Principal Characters: Philip Lutley Sclater, Ernst Haeckel, Helena P. Blavatsky, James Churchward, Wishar S. Cervé (Harvey Spencer Lewis), Charles D. Maclean
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, Anthropology, Science and technology
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Authors or writers, Science or scientists, California, Life, biological, Pacific Ocean, Prehistoric humans, Apes, Evolution, Monkeys, Primates, Life sciences, Indian Ocean
- Locales: Oceans, Pacific Ocean
Lemuria made its first recorded appearance in an 1864 article titled “The Mammals of Madagascar” in The Quarterly Journal of Science. Its author, Philip Lutley Sclater, was puzzled by the distribution of the lemur, the only primate inhabiting the large island of Madagascar, off the southeastern coast of Africa. Sclater observed that thirty species of lemur were to be found in Madagascar, while only a dozen or so lived on the African mainland and only three in the region of India. Suggesting that Madagascar and India must have been connected at some remote time, Sclater went...
[The entire page is 1746 words long]
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