The South American Herpetofauna: Its Origin, Evolution, and Dispersal. E-book. Formato PDF - 9780259689768

This volume is the result of a symposium of the same title held on 11-13 August 1977 in conjunction with the joint annual meetings of the Herpetologists League and the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles at Lawrence, Kansas. I originally conceived the idea for such a symposium in August 1975 while returning from a 15-month sojourn in South America. My interactions with many South American biologists during that trip had convinced me that the time was appropriate for a thorough discussion of ideas and presentation of our existing knowledge of the South American heqetofauna. The initial response from colleagues was heartening, so during the following year the symposium was organized. Unfortunately, owing to various circumstances not all subjects were covered; obvious omissions in this volume are chapters on the South American-North American herpetofaunal relationships and the herpetofaunas of the Brasilian Highlands, the Atacama Desert, and the caatinga and campos cerrados of Brasil.

This volume is organized in much the same way as was the symposium, except that my introductory chapter provides an overview of the South American herpetofauna. Chapter 2 deals with the fossil record of amphibians and reptiles in South America, and Chapters 3 and 4 are concerned with the relationships of the South American herpetofauna with those of Africa and Australia. The Quaternary biogeography of the continent is the subject of Chapters 5-7. Treatments of regional herpetofaunas are found in Chapters 8-15, and the Participants in the Symposium on the South American Herpetofauna held in Lawrence, Kansas, 11-13 August 1977. Front row (left to right): Alberto Veloso M., Beryl B. Simpson, Jaime E. Pefaur, Ana Maria Baez, Jose M .Cei. Second row: Lars Brundin, Thomas E E. Lovejoy, Donn E. Rosen, Jiirgen Haffer, Thomas H. Fritts, Ramon Formas, Raymond F. Laurent. Back row: William E. Duellman, James R. Dixon, Marinus S. Hoogmoed, John D. Lynch, W. Ronald Heyer, Michael J. Tyler, Jose M. Gallardo.