The late Cenozoic sedimentary record of the Pampas is accumulated on a very heterogeneous substrate with areas characterized by major stratigraphic hiatuses. The purpose of the present contribution is to provide a regional overview of the late Cenozoic sedimentary succession as a general framework for the Pampean fossil vertebrates with the focus on the Neogene and Quaternary dynamics of the sedimentary basins. With this in mind, the general structural and geological framework is summarized along with the main features of the stratigraphy, sedimentology and chronology. Finally, we discuss the controlling factors of the sedimentary basins (tectonics, climate). The late Cenozoic sediments of the Pampean plain are the result of the combined action of both tectonics and climate since the late Miocene. The onset of sedimentation followed the retreat of the late Miocene Paranense marine transgression and continued until the present. The plain evolved under a compressive force pattern due to the Andean subduction and the Atlantic ridge-push. A remarkable feature is the abundance and diversity of vertebrate fossil remains in fluvial environments such as those exposed in Monte Hermoso, Chasicó, and Chapadmalal, for instance. A future step is to analyze the paleoenvironmental conditions and the diagenetic process that dominated in the Pampas in order to better understand the taphonomic history of the fossil remains, a topic still poorly known.