Fossils of south american land carnivores (mammalia, carnivora)

Abstract

Terrestrial placental carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora) of South America are recorded as being in existence since the late Miocene (Huayquerian), with representatives of the families Felidae, Canidae, Ursidae, Mustelidae and Procyonidae. The arrival of eutherian carnivores to South America is closely associated to the rising of the Panamian Isthmus that permitted the biogeographic event called the "Great American Biotic Exchange". In this chapter we update the latest advances in the systematics, phylogeny, biostratigraphy, biogeography and paleoecology of South American land carnivores. The first records correspond to procyonids dated as late Miocene (Huayquerian). At the end of the Pliocene (Vorohueian) canids (Caninae) and mustelids (Mustelinae) appear, but it is at the beginning of the Ensenadan (late Pliocene ? middle Pleistocene) when the group diversified, represented by the first record of Ursidae, Felidae, Mephitidae, Lutrinae and large canids. The diversity of fossil and recent carnivores is a consequence of several independent immigrations (also within subfamilies and genera), and the diversification of these immigrants in South America.