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Mid-Pleistocene Change in Large Mammal Faunas of East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Richard Potts  and
Alan Deino
Richard Potts
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658, Nairobi, Kenya
Alan Deino
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709
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Abstract

Single-crystal 40Ar/39Ar age estimates of 392,000 ± 4000 to 330,000 ± 6000 yr from Lainyamok, a middle Pleistocene fossil locality in the southern Kenya rift, document the oldest evidence from sub-Saharan Africa of a diverse, large mammal fauna consisting entirely of extant species. The inferred age of this fauna implies an upper limit for extinction of species that characterize well-calibrated, mid-Pleistocene fossil assemblages in East Africa. For its age and species richness, the Lainyamok fauna is surprising for its lack of extinct forms (e.g., the bovine Pelorovis) well documented in later faunal assemblages of East and South Africa. Definitive presence of the South African blesbok (Damaliscus dorcas) is also unexpected, especially as this alcelaphine bovid is the dominant large mammal in the Lainyamok fauna. These age estimates and the faunal composition at Lainyamok indicate that geographic ranges and taxonomic associations of extant largebodied mammals were susceptible to wide fluctuations in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 330,000 yr. This inference is consistent with the hypothesis of nonanalogue, or ephemeral, biotas believed to characterize late Quaternary ecosystems of northern continents.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 106 - 113
Copyright
University of Washington

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