The fossil land mammals in the Paleogene of Antarctica

GELFO J. N.; REGUERO, M.

Conferencia; ONLINE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ATMOSPHERIC AND EARTH SCIENCES; 2021

Herald Meetings

In the present, Antarctica is the only continent covered almost entirely by ice and without terrestrial mammals. This group of vertebrates are only represented by marine cetacean and pinnipeds. But the Antarctic fossil record, suggest that this continent was a key stone in terrestrial mammalian evolution. Paleobiogeographical studies indicate that West Antarctica probably functioned as a possible origin center for Australosphenida during the Jurassic, and as a dispersal corridor during the Late Cretaceous/earliest Paleogene, from Australia to South America for monotremes, and from South America to Australia for marsupials. Placentals mammals were also recorded in the Eocene of Antarctica and their clearly represent South American lineages.