All About Current and Fossil Neotropical Mammals: 100 Million Years of Evolution Under the Tropics

Abstract

The novel title of this book corresponds to the Proceedings oftwo symposia that took place in 2010 during the 10thInternational Mammalogical Congress in Mendoza, Argentina.These symposia, on settings and patterns of the historical bio-geography of Neotropical mammals, were organized by twointernational experts in mammals, who are also the editors ofthis book, Bruce Patterson and Leonora Costa. The editorsbenefited from the contribution of numerous specialists onrecent and fossil mammals, allowing them to compile an over-view of our present knowledge on the origin, evolution, anddiversity of the fascinating Neotropical mammals in the WestIndies and in Central and South America.The book is divided in two sections, preceded by an intro-ductory chapter (Chapter 1) authored by the editors.Thefirstsection,titledTheGeologicalSetting,includessixcontributions made primarily by paleontologists and biolo-gists from Argentina (FJ Goin, FJ Prevosti, SF Vizcaino, andcolleagues from CONICET), the United States (D Croft, JJFlynn, and colleagues), and Brazil (E Eizirik). This first partfocuses on the origin, evolution, systematics, paleobiology,radiation, and distribution of mammals, with each specialist(and their colleagues) dealing with a favored theme. Thecontribution of Darin Croft (Chapter 2) treats the origin anddiversityofextinctSouthAmericanmammals.Croft'schapteris an introduction to the geological section of the book. InChapter 3, Francisco Goin and his co-authors trace the fasci-nating history of South American mammals. This chapter isextremely detailed, well illustrated, and supported with ex-tended selected references. The chapter covers a time periodextending from the early Gondwanan period, through the riseoftheAndes,totheformationofthePanamanianisthmus,anddescribes the five (hypothetical) phases of mammalian evolu-tion in South America in relation to biotic and abiotic eventssuch as climate changes and tectonic stages. The history ofSouthAmericanmammalsismainlybasedonresearchdevel-oped over the course of more than two centuries in ArgentinePatagonia; however, new discoveries made during the pastseveraldecadesinothersareasofthecontinenthavehelpedtocomplete the puzzle of South American mammalian history.In this context, the research of John Flynn and his colleagues(Chapter 4) has contributed enormously to the more recentdiscoveries in the Andes, mainly in Chile, Bolivia, andColombia. The overarching work of these researchers coversthe evolution of mammals in South America from the lateMesozoic La Amarga Formation (Argentina, Rougier et al.,2009), through the Paleocene of Tiupampa, the “RosettaStone” for South American mammalian evolution,preservingnearly complete skeletons of early mammals such as themarsupials Pucadelphys and Mayulestes (Muizon andCifelli 1997), to the incredible Tinguirirican fauna of Chile,which helps fill an important gap during the Eocene/Oligocene transition (Flynn et al.2003), and withoutneglecting Branisella boliviana (Hoffstetter 1969), generallyconsidered an early African primate immigrant from the lateOligocene Bolivian locality of Salla, or the monotremeMonotrematum sudamericanum from the early Paleocene ofPunta Peligro in Argentine Patagonia (Pascual et al. 1992).Some of these faunas, located in western and central South