LAUSR

When the Spanish conquerors and priests discovered the first fossils mammals from South America, they considered them as related to ancient giant humans or antediluvian inhabitants. In 1788 the Dominican priest Manuel Torres found a strange skeleton on the bank of the Luján River in Argentina and sent it to Madrid, where an employee of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Juan Bautista Bru reassembled and illustrated the bones. Based on Mr. Bru’s work, the great anatomist Georges Cuvier, in 1796, assigned for the first time a scientific name to a fossil mammal: Megatherium americanum. Since then, amateurs and researchers have been captivated by the paleobiological history of South America. Today it is easy to find great scientific literature and popular science books dealing with this topic (e.g., Madden et al. 2010; Fariña et al. 2013). The recently edited "Horned Armadillos and Rafting Monkeys: the Fascinating Fossil Mammals of South America" is a wellwritten volume on mammalian paleontology, and also a paleogeographical journey to ancient South America. The principal difference with other available texts with a similar scope is that even as it is intended as an easy approach for amateur readers, the details presented are also useful for students and professional paleontologists. The book reviews and summarizes the mammalian fossil record through the classic Cenozoic localities of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. Although the printed edition is presented in hardcover format, it has a great Chinese manufacture that certainly merits the price; however, the electronic format at almost the same cost is too expensive. The 320 pages of the book are fully illustrated with photographs of paleontological localities and fossil specimens, as well as interesting reconstructions of extinct mammals by the artist and experienced scientific illustrator Velizar Simeonovski. Reconstructions of mammals in paleontology are not always as daring as those of dinosaurs, so re-creations such as the two male Trigodon notoungulates engaged in fighting behavior during the mating season on the front cover are very welcome. In this sense, the author’s intention to dedicate this book to anyone who ever wondered what a notoungulate looked like is well satisfied. The contents of this book are structured in order to divide Cenozoic mammalian history into three main events: the Early and Late South American Phases, and the Great American Biotic Interchange. Eager and demanding readers would expect extra chapters for the Mesozoic mammals or a detail description of the megafaunal extinctions, but clearly, these topics are out of the scope of the book. The issue focuses on Cenozoic fossil mammals, but Darin Croft also included species from other groups, such as the horned turtle Niolamia argentina and the giant caiman Purussaurus neivensis, which are usually associated with mammals. Two essential introductions, Time and Geography and Introduction to Mammals, successfully explain important technical aspects of paleomammalogical work. This is an interesting goal of the text as it makes the subject matter easier to understand for non-specialized readers and therefore a recommended reading for a general university course. In addition to the brief summary of mammalian taxonomy, the introduction also has an important update from the classical view of Simpson, who never knew the Mesozoic mammals of South America, and * Javier N. Gelfo [email protected]