Excerpt from A Paleobiotic Survey of Caribbean Faunas From the Neogene of the Isthmus of Panama I. Stratigraphy. There exists along the Caribbean coast of Panama and Costa Rica a series of expo sures Of richly fossiliferous, Neogene, shallow-wa ter sediments which, when placed in stratigraphic succession, cover the late Middle Miocene to Early Pleistocene interval. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book offers exchanges between the fields of paleontology and zoology as patterns of biodiversity have long attracted the attention of both biologists and paleontologists. It covers the development of isolated island faunas, paleogeography and zoomorphology. The book shows that patterns are not always what they seem if looked at without a spatial or temporal reference.

How were the tropical Americas formed? This ambitious volume draws on extensive, multidisciplinary research to develop new views of the geological formation of the isthmus linking North and South America and of the major environmental changes that reshaped the Neotropics to create its present-day marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Recent discoveries show that dramatic changes in climate and ocean circulation can occur very quickly, and that ecological communities respond just as rapidly. Abrupt changes in the composition of fossil assemblages, formerly dismissed as artifacts of a poor fossil record, now are seen as accurate records of swift changes in the composition of ocean communities. The twenty-four contributors use current work in paleontology, geology, oceanography, anthropology, ecology, and evolution to paint this challenging portrait of rapid environmental and evolutionary change. Their conclusions argue for a revision of existing interpretations of the fossil record and the processes—including invading Eurasian peoples—that have produced it.

South American ecosystems suffered one of the greatest biogeographical events, after the establishment of the Panamian land bridge, called the “Great American Biotic Interchange” (GABI). This refers to the exchange, in several phases, of land mammals between the Americas; this event started during the late Miocene with the appearance of the Holartic Procyonidae (Huayquerian Age) in South America and continues today. The major phases of mammalian dispersal occurred from the Latest Pliocene (Marplatan Age) to the Late Pleistocene (Lujanian Age). The most important and richest localities of Late Miocene-Holocene fossil vertebrates of South America are those of the Pampean region of Argentina. There are also several Late Miocene and Pliocene localities in western Argentina and Bolivia. Other important fossils have been collected in localities of Pleistocene age outside Argentina: Tarija (Bolivia), karstic caves of Lagoa Santa and the recently explored caves of Tocantins (Brasil), Talara (Perú), La Carolina (Ecuador), Muaco (Venezuela), and Cueva del Milodon (Chile), among others. The book discusses basic information for interpreting the GABI such as taxonomic composition (incorporating the latest revisions) at classical and new localities for each stage addressing climate, environments, and time boundaries for each stage. It includes the chronology and dynamics of the GABI, the integration of South American mammalian faunas through time, the Quaternary mammalian extinctions and the composition of recent mammalian fauna of the continent.

Collision between Australia and SE Asia began in the Early Miocene and reduced the former wide ocean between them to a complex passage which connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Today, the Indonesian Throughflow passes through this gateway and plays an important role in global thermohaline flow. The surrounding region contains the maximum global diversity for many marine and terrestrial organisms. Reconstruction of this geologically complex region is essential for understanding its role in oceanic and atmospheric circulation, climate impacts, and the origin of its biodiversity. The papers in this volume discuss the Palaeozoic to Cenozoic geological background to Australia and SE Asia collision. They provide the background for accounts of the modern Indonesian Throughflow and oceanographic changes since the Neogene, and consider aspects of the region's climate history--