Ameghino's fossil mammals of the Pampas
Mamíferos fósiles pampeanos de Ameghino
- Date
- 1880-1889 · confidence high
- Place
- Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Credited to
- Florentino Ameghino
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Ameghino described hundreds of fossil mammals from the Pampas and Patagonia and ordered them into a chronological succession. His Contribución al conocimiento de los mamíferos fósiles de la República Argentina (1889) founded South American palaeontology.
His theses that South America was the cradle of mammals and humans (Tetraprothomo) were rejected; his stage chronology was corrected by later dating.
What it led to
- Relative chronology of South American Cenozoic stages
- Study of the Great American Biotic Interchange
- Argentine palaeontological school