The Neogene Mammalian Fauna of the Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The intent of this study was to show the Neogene mammalian faunal change of the sub-Saharan Africa and the Relationships of the late Miocene mammalian faunas of the sub-Saharan Africa and the Eurasia. I reviewed the Neogene mammalian fauna of the sub-Saharan Africa and studied the phylogenetic relationships of some taxa from the Namurungule Formation (late Miocene), Northern Kenya.
The sub-Saharan mammalian fauna of Neogene and its environments change from forest type to savanna type at the late Miocene. Tetralophodon from the Namurungule Formation was the most advanced type of Gomphotheriidae (Proboscidea) of the Eurasia and Africa, the large form of Hipparionine (Equidae, Perissodactyla) was very similar to Cormohipparion perimense of the Siwaliks, Iranotherinae (Rhinocerotidae, Perissodactyla) was similar to the taxa from Spain, Iran, the Siwaliks, and China.
These facts support the idea that the Namurungule mammalian fauna consists mostly of the common Eurasian taxa and the unique African taxa, and this late Miocene fauna becomes the nucleus of the Pliocene to Pleistocene mammalian fauna of the sub-Saharan Africa.