INVESTIGADORES
FERNICOLA Juan Carlos
artículos
Título:
Young Darwin and the ecology and extinction of Pleistocene South American fossil mammals
Autor/es:
VIZCAÍNO, S. F.; FARIÑA, R. A.; FERNICOLA, J. C.
Revista:
Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina
Editorial:
Asociación Geológica Argentina
Referencias:
Año: 2009 vol. 64 p. 160 - 169
ISSN:
0004-4822
Resumen:
During his two years in South America Charles Darwin became fascinated not only with the lush vegetation of Brazil, but also with the gigantic Pleistocene mammals that he found in the drier areas of Uruguay, and in the pampas and Patagonian coast of Argentina. These findings included various ground sloths and glyptodonts among xenarthrans, and hoofed herbivores like Toxodon and Macrauchenia, in addition to horses and other smaller rodents. He concluded that the general assumption that large animals require luxuriant vegetation was false and that vitiated the reasoning of geologists on some aspects of Earths history. He also reflected on the evident changes that occurred in the continent, the extinct fauna of which suggested to him an analogy to southern parts of Africa. He wondered about our ignorance of biological traits in extinct creatures and the reasons for their extinction. Thus, not only did Darwin inspire phylogenetic studies on fossil mammal lineages, he also opened a gate to the research on their behaviour, physiology and extinction; i.e., their palaeobiology. Whereas the first approach was largely developed in South America beginning about the second half of the 19th century due to the intellectual influence of Florentino Ameghino, palaeobiology became a much more recent line of work, in apparent relation to innovations in methodology and technology. This contribution provides an overview of recent contributions on the palaeobiology of Pleistocene fossil mammals of South America as attempts to provide answers for Darwins questions.