摘要
Recently discovered deposits containing terrestrial mammal fossils, together with multidisciplinary studies of classical sequences, have yielded dramatic insights into the biotic and environmental history of South America. Notable advances include several new fossil primate taxa, an improved chronology of two major immigration events (caviomorph rodents and new world monkeys), documentation of the oldest mammalian faunas dominated by grazing taxa (which suggests that grasslands appeared at least 15 million years earlier than on other continents), evidence of early biogeographical provinciality within South America, and improved sampling of the best known Cenozoic tropical South American paleofauna.
摘要译文
最近发现的含有陆地哺乳动物化石的矿床，连同对古典序列的多学科研究，对南美的生物和环境历史有了深刻的认识。值得注意的进展包括几个新的化石灵长类动物群，两个主要移民事件（ca鼠和新世界猴）的改进年表，记录了以放牧分类群为主的最古老的哺乳动物动物群（这表明草原至少出现了1500万年前其他大陆），南美洲早期生物地理省份的证据，以及最有名的新生代热带南美洲古生物群的采样。
John JFlynna[1];André RWyssb[2];. Recent advances in South American mammalian paleontology[J]. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 1998,13(11): 449-454