Abstract
The Miocene was a key time in the evolution of African ecosystems witnessing the origin of the African apes and the isolation of eastern coastal forests through an expanding arid corridor. Until recently, however, Miocene sites from the southeastern regions of the continent were unknown. Here, we report the first Miocene fossil teeth from the shoulders of the Urema Rift in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. We provide the first 1) radiometric ages of the Mazamba Formation, 2) reconstructions of paleovegetation in the region based on pedogenic carbonates and fossil wood, and 3) descriptions of fossil teeth. Gorongosa is unique in the East African Rift in combining marine invertebrates, marine vertebrates, reptiles, terrestrial mammals, and fossil woods in coastal paleoenvironments. The Gorongosa fossil sites offer the first evidence of woodlands and forests on the coastal margins of southeastern Africa during the Miocene, and an exceptional assemblage of fossils including new species.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 107644 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-29 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | iScience |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Authors
Funding
We are deeply thankful to Greg Carr for his visionary approach to preserving the Gorongosa ecosystem, and for vital support to the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa. Research permits were granted by the Direcção Nacional do Património Cultural, Mozambique, with the support of professors Hilário Madiquida and Solange Macamo of Eduardo Mondlane University. We are very grateful to Gorongosa National Park, the Park Warden Pedro Muagura, the fiscais who provide support, and the Park staff, including Vasco Galante and Patricia Álvares da Guerra. We appreciate the help with logistics provided by Miguel Lajas, Jason Denlinger, and Tongai Castigo. We thank Mussa Raja, Katarina Almeida-Warren, Ana Gledis da Conceição, Gabriela Curtiz, Celina Dias, Katherine Elmes, Roberto Mussibora, Inês Sevene, and students from the Oxford-Gorongosa Paleo-Primate Field School who took part in the excavations and other aspects of field research. Pepson Makanela prepared and curated specimens while providing training to Mozambican students. We thank S. Adnet, B. Beatty, R. Bernor, C. Brochu, D. Domning, M. Fortelius, D. Geraads, F. Guillocheau, T. Harrison, J. Hutchinson, C. Peters, M. Pickford, C. Robin, C. Robinson, K. Stewart, and W. Sanders for insightful discussions about Gorongosa fossils. E. Seiffert kindly provided access to the hyracoid data matrix. L. Léanni assisted with chemical treatments and ICP-OES measurements in the LN2C laboratories (Cosmogenic Nuclides French National Laboratory, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence). The 10Be and 26Al measurements were performed at the ASTER AMS national facility (CEREGE) which is supported by the INSU/CNRS, the ANR through the “Projets thématiques d'excellence” program for the “Equipements d'excellence” ASTER-CEREGE action, IRD. We thank the National Geographic Society for grants to S.C. (NGS-57285R), R.B. (NGS-51140R-18), T.L. and J.H. (NGS-51478R). M.B. acknowledges funding from PAST (Palaeontological Scientific Trust, South Africa). T.L. was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Emmy Noether Fellowship LU 2199/2-1. T.P. was funded by the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, ECF-2018-264. J.d.C. was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Grant SFRH/BD/122306/2016. This study was supported by the Gorongosa Restoration Project and by ICArEHB – Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under program UIDP/04211/2020. We are very grateful for the thoughtful reviews of four anonymous referees, which helped us to improve this paper, and for the comments and guidance of the iScience editors. R.B. and S.C. conceived the project and methodology, carried out fieldwork, performed paleontological analyses, and wrote the original draft. T.P. and J.d.C. carried out formal statistical multivariate morphometric and phylogenetic analyses and wrote sections of the paper. J.M.H. T.L. M.D.B. and M.S. carried out geological fieldwork and wrote sections of the paper. A.E.L. led the cosmogenic nuclide analysis and wrote sections of the paper with laboratory assistance from G.A. D.L.B. and K.K. T.L. performed stable isotope analyses and wrote sections of the paper. M.B. performed paleobotanical analysis and wrote sections of the paper. J.J.H. and K.K. performed paleontological analyses and wrote sections of the paper. V.A. Z.A. R.L.A. W.A. D.B. D.R.B. C.C. A.M. F.I.M. J.M. C.M. L.M.P. M.P. D.P. F.T.R. M.J.F.d.S. and M.S. carried out surveys and/or excavations and field data collection. All authors contributed to editing the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. We support inclusive, diverse, and equitable conduct of research.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Centre Europeen de Recherche et d'Enseignement des Geosciences de l'Environnement (CEREGE) | |
| Cosmogenic Nuclides French National Laboratory | |
| Gorongosa National Park | |
| INSU | |
| Oxford-Gorongosa Paleo-Primate Field School | |
| Park Warden Pedro Muagura | |
| Tongai Castigo | |
| National Geographic Society | NGS-51140R-18, NGS-57285R, NGS-51478R |
| Leverhulme Trust | ECF-2018-264 |
| the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft | LU 2199/2-1 |
| Agence Nationale de la Recherche | |
| Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia | SFRH/BD/122306/2016 |
| CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |
Keywords
- Evolutionary biology
- Forestry
- Geochemistry
