Pattern of land mammal extinction throughout the middle late Miocene-Recent in South America

PRADO, JOSÉ LUIS; ORTIZ JAUREGUIZAR, EDGARDO

Washington

Congreso; IV International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology; 1990

University of Mariland and The Smithsonian Institution

In this communication, we analyzed the pattern of land-mammal extinction throughout the middle late Miocene-Recent in South America. We propose that the climatic-environmental shifts are the mainly causes of the overall pattern of extinctions, but disequilibrium dues to biological causes apparently  adquired an important role in the late Pleistocene extinction.