IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Steele, T.E. | |
| Late Pleistocene of Africa | |
| 2007 Book Chapter | |
Most of the mammal species found in the Late Pleistocene vertebrate records of Africa were also found on the continent historically. However, many changes in the species' ranges, abundance, and associations make Late Pleistocene faunal communities look different from today's communities. As the climate changed in the past, so did the vegetation. Many times in the fossil record, species are found in places where today their descendants live hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometers away, indicating that their past ranges were either completely shifted to different location or expanded to encompass new locations. Late Pleistocene climatic and vegetation changes created unique habitats, many of which do not exist today. Each species' unique responses to these dramatic changes meant that mammal communities were formed that do not have analogs today, meaning that species were often found together in fossil assemblages that are not found together historically. Only a handful of African species went extinct during the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene. |
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