Page 57 - Introduction to Paleobiology and The Fossil Record
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44 INTRODUCTION TO PALEOBIOLOGY AND THE FOSSIL RECORD
135 Ma
50 Ma
20 Ma
120
land bridge opens
100
Number of genera 60 n caviomorph rodents ‘invaders’
80
40
l
xenarthrans
20
marsupials
0
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Ma
Figure 2.15 The emergence of the Isthmus of Panama promoted the great American biotic interchange
(GABI) between North and South American terrestrial vertebrates together with the radiation of the
shallow-water marine benthos of the Caribbean Sea. l, litopterns; n, notoungulates. (Based on Benton
2005.)
understand the role of such islands through Geological and paleontological implications:
geological time; by their very nature, being using the data
short lived and located in tectonically active
areas, they are quickly lost and often Much of the early evidence for continental
destroyed. drift was paleontological, although it was
