South America’s Missing Mammals
Chilicebus
South America’s Missing Mammalshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=south-americas-missing-mammals&page=5
A recent article on finding new fossil records of South American mammals that tend to fill in the gaps where our previous knowledge had holes in it. Two sections are of especial interest:
Seafaring RodentsOne of the most significant of our Tinguiririca discoveries was a fossil of the earliest known South American rodent, a find that lends powerful evidence to a debate over the origins of today’s living capybaras and chinchillas. Known as caviomorph rodents, these creatures and their immediate kin make up South America’s most ancient rodent lineage (and are distinct from the younger rodent line of rats, mice and related creatures that arrived from the north about 3.5 million years ago, when the Isthmus of Panama first reconnected the two Americas).
Source:
