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Chapter 14 - Paleo-faunas: Rise and Fall of the Biggest Grazers

from Part III - The Big Mammal Menagerie: Herbivores, Carnivores and Their Ecosystem Impacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2021

Norman Owen-Smith
Norman Owen-Smith
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

This chapter documents the fossil record obtained mainly from rift valley troughs in north-eastern Africa and limestone caves in South Africa. Early Miocene faunas dominated by very large herbivores gave way to the radiation of ruminants during the late Miocene as C4 grasslands spread. Grazing became prominent in all taxa. Modern genera had mostly appeared by the start of the Pleistocene, 2.6 Ma ago. Ungulate diversity declined through the Pleistocene, culminating in extinctions of several large grazers towards the end of this epoch. Large carnivore diversity also became halved. Subspecific diversity in morphology is a feature of some ruminant grazers. Other continents lack Africa’s richness in medium–large grazing ruminants.

Keywords

Miocene giantsruminant radiationsgrazer expansionsPlio-Pleistocene turnoverlate Pleistocene extinctionssubspecies distinctions.
Type
Chapter
Information
Only in Africa
The Ecology of Human Evolution
 , pp. 220 - 242
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Suggested Further Reading

Bobe, R. (2011) Fossil mammals and paleoenvironments in the Omo–Turkana Basin. Evolutionary Anthropology 20:254–263.Google Scholar
Elliot, MC; Berger, LR. (2018) A Handbook to the Cradle of Humankind. Reach Publishers, Wandsbeck.Google Scholar
Werdelin, L; Sanders, WJ (eds) (2010) The Cenozoic Mammals of Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar

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