Espacios y especies. Propuesta de modelización espacial para comprender las extinciones del Pleistoceno Tardío - Holoceno Temprano.

The study of the distribution of species is increasingly more necessary to understand the extinction of mega mammals that occurred during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods. Spatial analysis procedures, such as cartographic modelling and multicriteria evaluation techniques, allow for the finding of spatial correspondences between geographic, environmental, faunal and human variables, to investigate the causes of these losses. From a conceptual approach, this paper analyses the characteristics of the interdisciplinary approach between Geography and Palaeontology, the role of spatial models in scientific realism, rationalist causality processes, and the possibilities of quantitative techniques in systemic spatial analysis, taking the case of the ground sloth Scelidotherium leptocephalum (Mylodontidae, Xenarthra). It concludes with a proposal for cartographic modelling as a logical construction of application in which the spatial dimension takes a central place of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]