Rethinking the concept of modern analogues within the framework of the Anthropocene: A South American mammalian perspective. An introduction to the special issue

Abstract

This special volume emphasises the need to integrate different lines of evidence to understand the effects of human activities on landscapes within the framework of the Anthropocene. The accelerated deterioration of animal and plant communities in recent times makes it a great challenge to find modern analogues that best fits as a baseline in paleoenvironmental and palaeoecological reconstructions. Studies included here evaluated and discussed the evidence about changes in mammals communities in different environments of Argentina induced by human activities, focussing particularly in recent times (post-Hispanic), although some of them also evaluated the relation between humans and the environment in the last 1600 yr. Different sources and proxy data were employed in the analysis: (1) fossil and subfossil sequences of small mammals, (2) stable isotopic analyses and (3) mammal specimens deposited in museums and biological collections.