South American fossil carnivorans (order carnivora)

Abstract

Carnivora is a clade of mammalian predators that evolved in northern continents during the Paleocene, and since the Miocene have invaded the southern continents (i.e., Africa and South America). They evolved a large diversity and disparity of body forms and size, which allowed the occupation of many ecological niches. Carnivorans arrived in South America in the late Miocene, when Central America provided a land bridge, or an island chain that facilitated migration of initial mammalian groups including carnivorans. The first carnivorans in South America were procyonids, followed by mustelids and canids in the late Pliocene, and felids, mephitids, and ursids in the Pleistocene. Their high diversity and morphological disparity can be explained through a combination of repeated immigrations and radiations into empty ecological zones. Here we present a synthesis of the systematics, distribution, and paleocology of fossil terrestrial carnivorans of South America.