MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY OF CENOZOIC TERRESTRIAL SEDIMENTS AND MAMMALIAN DISPERSAL

The existing literature on the correlation of the magnetic polarity timescale to vertebrate mammalian chronology for the Cenozoic is reviewed for all continents except the Soviet Union. Ten criteria for rating magnetostratigraphic studies are established, and the papers reviewed are rated. The timing of mammalian dispersal is examined against the background of information from magnetostratigraphic studies allied with radiometric dating. It has been suggested that dispersal and evolutionary episodes observed in Siwalik sediments were correlative to sea level change deduced from δ18O data from benthic Foraminifera. Dispersal events into North America were determined and in a majority of cases the dispersal events correspond to inferred drops in sea level. Since dispersals proceed in both directions once a corridor is open, it follows that European Land Mammal ages will tend to be coincident with the North American Land Mammal ages. As close as can be determined this seems to be a correct inference for the Neogene of Europe. -from Author