Mesozoic Mammals from South America and Their Forerunners, 1st ed. 2021 Springer Earth System Sciences Series

This book summarizes the most relevant published paleontological information, supplemented by our own original work, on the record of Mesozoic mammals? evolution, their close ancestors and their immediate descendants. Mammals evolved in a systematically diverse world, amidst a dynamic geography that is at the root of the 6,500 species living today. Fossils of Mesozoic mammals, while rare and often incomplete, are key to understanding how mammals have evolved over more than 200 million years. Mesozoic mammals and their close relatives occur in a few  dozen localities from Argentina, Brazil, Chile,  Bolivia, and Peru spanning from the Mid- Triassic to the Late Cretaceous, with some lineages surviving the cataclysmic end of the Cretaceous period, into the Cenozoic of Argentina. There are roughly 25 recognized mammalian species distributed in several distinctive lineages, including australosphenidans, multituberculates, gondwanatherians, eutriconodonts, amphilestids and dryolestoids, among others. With its focus on diversity, systematics, phylogeny, and their impact on the evolution of mammals, there is no similar book currently available.

Introduction.- General aspects on non-mammaliaform cynodonts and the origin of mammals.- The radiation of Mesozoic Mammals.- Australosphenidans.- Triconodontians.- Dryolestoideans.- Stem therians.- Multituberculates and Gondwanatherians.- Other records.- The South American Mesozoic record and early evolution of mammals.

No other book covers the early evolution of mammals in South America in detail Early mammalian evolution is a topic that currently enjoys great popularity in the scientific and lay community, serving as an example of evolution and as part of the dynamic transformation of past communities The authors are at the forefront of the discipline, having personally and directly collected, described and published many of the forms included in the book