South America: Motherland of all things Dinosaurs

Just a quick post. This is something I have always find interesting. South America or the Neotropical Zone has the highest species diversity of birds with 3,000 species (⅓ of the world’s birds); 31 families are endemic in this region of the world (in Brett-Surman et. al, 2012). To make this even more interesting and appropriate, the earliest known stem-bird dinosaurs (in Brett-Surman et. al, 2012) have also been discovered in South America as well. We can even go back further to the stem-bird dinosauriformes and stem-bird dinosauromorphs that have been located here (in Brett-Surman et. al, 2012). What does this all mean? Dinosauromorpha originated in South America and the motherland still has her denizens. Also an excuse to remake Hitcock’s The Birds in South America.

I will admit I was mindblown when I saw this in my ornithology class.

Reference

• Brett-Surman, M. K., Holtz, T. R., & Farlow, J. O. (Eds.). (2012). The Complete Dinosaur. Indiana University Press.