Fauna of South America

The fauna of South America consists of a huge variety of unique animals some of which evolved in relative isolation. The isolation of South America had an abrupt end some few million years ago when the Isthmus of Panama was formed, allowing small scale migration of animals that would result in the Great American Interchange which caused many marsupials such as Thylacosmilus to go extinct.[1] South America is the continent with the largest number of recorded bird species.[2]

Images

Four examples of animals in South America appear below:

Sources
  • Patterson, Bryan; Pascual, Rosendo (1968). "The Fossil Mammal Fauna of South America". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 43 (4): 409–451. doi:10.1086/405916. JSTOR 2819014. S2CID 85357795.

References
  1. What happens when continents collide? - Juan D. Carrillo, TED Conferences, LLC, retrieved 2023-03-21
  2. Palmerlee, Danny (2007). South America on a Shoestring. Lonely Planet Publications. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-74104-443-0. OCLC 76936293.

See also


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