South America had been an island continent, far bigger and far more diverse than Australia, for tens of millions of years before the Isthmus of Panam… - Stephen Jay Gould

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South America had been an island continent, far bigger and far more diverse than Australia, for tens of millions of years before the Isthmus of Panama rose just a couple of million years ago. The resulting flood of North American mammals across the new land bridge corresponds in time with the decimation of the native South American fauna. In fact, most large mammals generally considered distinctly South American... are all recent migrants from North America.