Description of the Great American Interchange
Descripción del Gran Intercambio Americano
- Date
- 1876 · confidence medium
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Wallace, after years of fieldwork in the Amazon, proposed in his work on the geographical distribution of animals how North and South American fauna had mixed as the Isthmus of Panama formed, laying the groundwork for the study of the Great American Biotic Interchange.
The actual biotic interchange accelerated around 2.7 million years ago; Wallace first described it in 1876 in "The Geographical Distribution of Animals", though the concept was much refined in the 20th century (Simpson and others).
What it led to
- Modern study of American paleobiogeography
- Explanation of extinctions of native South American fauna
- Understanding of the Isthmus of Panama's formation as a biological bridge