THE WEDDELL LINE, AN EARLY CENOZOIC BIOGEOGRAPHICAL BARRIER AMONG SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE TERRESTRIAL MAMMALS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5710/AMGH.10.10.2024.3613Keywords:
South America, Antarctica, West Antarctica, Australia, Cenozoic, Paleogene, Mammalia, Metatheria, Biogeography, Weddellian LineAbstract
We propose the Weddell Line as a new biogeographical barrier that acted as a sweepstakes route between East and West Antarctica during early Paleogene times. This biogeographical line run south of Marie Byrd Land, the southernmost block of West Antarctica, across a seaway linking the Weddell and Ross embayments, currently covered by thick ice shelves. The Weddell Line prevented the arrival of eutherian mammals to Australia from South America. The oldest known, Cenozoic terrestrial and non-volant Australian fauna is composed exclusively of metatherians which show affinities with South American lineages, thus implying that the latter was the ultimate source of the metatherian radiation in Australasia.
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