Overstatement is not a characteristic of politicians or trial lawyers alone; paleontologists are similarly guilty of such blowing of their own horns. A dinosaur specialist might point to many marvelous dinosaur discoveries in South America as the most important discoveries in paleontology, for example.

It was really only a matter of time before such cats and other animals of comparable age would be recovered in South America. Three elements are required: deposits with fossils; paleontologists to recover the fossils; identification of the fossils. That South America has the first in abundance is apparent. However, the latter two elements have been limited by budgets, available expertise and political instability. The discovered animals, including the cats, represent an invasion of South America from the north as connections between the continents were established. Unfortunately for the regional mammals, long isolated and with many specialized adaptations, the invasion meant disaster and many, many local species became extinct.

cats and condors were all over the americas.