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Marsupials and Other Metatheres of South America

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History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 42))

Abstract

Marsupials and other metatherians apparently arrived in South America before the beginning of the Paleogene, at the end of the Cretaceous. The earliest relatives of Australian marsupials, the Microbiotheria, appear in the earliest assemblage. The carnivorous sparassodonts evolved the largest metatherian predators known, such as the 600 kg Proborhyaena, as well as the jaguar-sized saber-toothed marsupial Thylacosmilus. Many of these poorly known marsupial predators are well-illustrated by Roman Uchytel.

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  1. Department of Biology, National University of Colombia, Bogota, Bogota, Colombia

    Thomas Defler

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Defler, T. (2019). Marsupials and Other Metatheres of South America. In: History of Terrestrial Mammals in South America. Topics in Geobiology, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98449-0_4

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