Abstract

OTTONE, Eduardo G.. Fossils as fictional characters: Argentine paleontology and literature in the late 19th century and the beginnings of the 20th century. Rev. Asoc. Geol. Argent. [online]. 2011, vol.68, n.3, pp.415-430. ISSN 0004-4822.

Argentine literature from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century referred to the presence of Cenozoic fossil mammals in the pampas. Glyptodons and megatheriums became characters in the texts of Eduardo Ladislao Holmberg, William Henry Hudson, Eduarda y Lucio Victorio Mansilla, Leopoldo Lugones, Geoffroy Franois Daireux, Horacio Quiroga, Hugo Wast, Ezequiel Martnez Estrada, Leopoldo Marechal and Manuel Mujica Lainez. These authors contextualize the fossil vertebrates in humoristic or realistic scenes, as icons of the greatness of the nation and the Pampa, or as a parody of local cultural stereotypes.

Keywords : Mammals; Cenozoic; Argentine literature.

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