ABSTRACT
Central America connects two vast land areas, the continents of North and South America. When this connection was established, during the Pliocene, a wholesale exchange of vertebrate animals took place between the two continents — the “great American interchange” [1-3]. Interest in the vertebrate paleontology of Central America has largely been driven by scientific study of the dynamics of this interchange. Which animals moved south, which moved north, when and how did they move, and what evolutionary events did and did not take place in Central America? — These are questions typically asked of the Central American vertebrate fossil record. As a result, most of the research on the Central American vertebrate fossil record focuses on Pliocene and Pleistocene fossil mammals. Nevertheless, earlier records of Oligocene and Miocene fossil vertebrates are also known from Central America. This chapter provides an overview of the vertebrate fossil record of Central America (Fig. 16.1; Table 16.1) and briefly discusses its significance.
