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Introduction

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History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 42))

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Abstract

This is a brief description of the roles played by various early collectors and describers of ancient bones in South America. The chapter briefly describes the tools that are necessary to interpret the evolutionary history of South American mammals including the problem of calculating geological time, stratification, radiometric dating, paleomagnetism, the establishment of SALMAs (South American Land Mammal Ages), the geological time scale (and table), plate tectonics and the distribution of fauna, the role of Alfred Wegener, continental drift, and molecular phylogenetic research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, National University of Colombia, Bogota, Bogota, Colombia

    Thomas Defler

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  1. Thomas Defler
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Defler, T. (2019). Introduction. In: History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America. Topics in Geobiology, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98449-0_1

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