Flora and Fauna

The various rises of the Andes from Miocene to Pleistocene times have isolated a substantial portion of the South American continent, producing conditions that resulted in the emergence of two new high altitude life zones: the northern Paramos and the southern altiplano. We examine here the conditions prevailing in the altiplano now, and how they can be related to the present distributional patterns of its flora and fauna. We also describe how such conditions might have influenced the development of permanent human settlements, particularly through the emergence of agriculture and the domestication of the region’s animals, either as beasts of burden, or sources of food, or both.