South America/West Antarctica: Pacific Affinities of the Weddellian Marine/Coastal Vertebrates

Abstract

The high latitude Weddellian Biogeographical Province, conceived by Zinsmeister(1979, 1982) on the basis of marine molluscan, echinoderm and arthropod faunas,was defined as a cool temperate, shallow water region which extended from southernSouth America (Magallanic Region in Chile, and Tierra del Fuego and Santa Cruz provinces in Argentina), along the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica, to New Zealand, Tasmania and southeastern Australia (Fig. 4.1). Case (1988) expanded this concept to a ?biogeographic province? with the inclusion of terrestrial plants and mammals. This province existed from the Late Cretaceous through the Eocene when Australia, Antarctica, and southernmost South America were in proximity (Zinsmeister 1979, 1982; Woodburne and Zinsmeister 1984).