The Great American Biotic Interchange

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. The Framework: An Overview

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. A Kaleidoscope of Plates, Faunal and Floral Dispersals, and Sea Level Changes

      • Francis G. Stehli, S. David Webb

      Pages 3-16

   3. Caribbean Plate Relative Motions

      • Douglas L. Smith

      Pages 17-48

   4. Geochronology and Land-Mammal Biochronology of the Transamerican Faunal Interchange

      • Larry G. Marshall

      Pages 49-85

3. In the Beginning: A Cretaceous-Paleogene View

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. Mesozoic and Cenozoic Plate Evolution of the Caribbean Region

      • Thomas W. Donnelly

      Pages 89-121

   3. South American Mammals in the Paleocene of North America

      • Philip D. Gingerich

      Pages 123-137

   4. Herpetofaunas of North and South America during the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic: Evidence for Interchange?

      • Richard Estes, Ana Báez

      Pages 139-197

4. In Isolation: A Tertiary View

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 199-199

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   2. Main Pathways of Mammalian Diversification in North America

      • S. David Webb

      Pages 201-217

   3. Main Pathways of Mammalian Diversification in South America

      • Rosendo Pascual, Maria G. Vucetich, Gustavo J. Scillato-Yané, Mariano Bond

      Pages 219-247

   4. South American Ungulate Evolution and Extinction

      • Richard L. Cifelli

      Pages 249-266

   5. Northern Waif Primates and Rodents

      • Albert E. Wood

      Pages 267-282

5. The Great Interchange: A Close View

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 283-283

      PDF

   2. Caribbean Tectonics from a Paleomagnetic Perspective

      • Wulf A. Gose

      Pages 285-301

   3. Sea Level, Climate, and the Central American Land Bridge

      • Samuel M. Savin, Robert G. Douglas

      Pages 303-324

   4. History and Development of the Marine Invertebrate Faunas Separated by the Central American Isthmus

      • Douglas S. Jones, Phyllis F. Hasson

      Pages 325-355

   5. Late Cenozoic Mammal Dispersals between the Americas

      • S. David Webb

      Pages 357-386

   6. Fossil and Recent Avifaunas and the Interamerican Interchange

      • François Vuilleumier

      Pages 387-424

Two rather different elements combine to explain the origin of this volume: one scientific and one personal. The broader of the two is the scientific basis-the time for such a volume had arrived. Geology had made remarkable progress toward an understanding of the phys­ ical history of the Caribbean Basin for the last 100 million years or so. On the biological side, many new discoveries had elucidated the distributional history of terrestrial orga­ nisms in and between the two Americas. Geological and biological data had been combined to yield the timing of important events with unprecedented resolution. Clearly, when each of two broad disciplines is making notable advances and when each provides new insights for the other, the rewards of cross-disciplinary contacts increase exponentially. The present volume represents an attempt to bring together a group of geologists, paleontologists and biologists capable of exploiting this opportunity through presentation of an interdisciplinary synthesis of evidence and hypothesis concerning interamerican connections during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Advances in plate tectonics form the basis for a modern synthesis and, in the broadest terms, dictate the framework within which the past and present distributions of organisms must be interpreted. Any scientific dis­ cipline must seek tests of its conclusions from data outside of its own confines.

• biological
• development
• distribution
• evolution
• geochronology
• geology
• plate tectonics
• primates
• synthesis
• the origin

• University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA

  Francis G. Stehli

• The Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

  S. David Webb

Policies and ethics