The evolution of biogeographic distinctiveness in the southern African

Southern African mammal faunas evolved a distinctive character in relation to other areas of Africa in a time younger than a million years ago. The large mammal fossil record of this time period can be divided into three evolutionary stages - the Cornelian Land Mammal Age, the Florisian Land Mammal Age and the modern. This faunal succession is recorded primarily in the central interior of southern Africa. The fossil assemblages from Cornelia- Uitzoek record the beginning of the process of increased endemism associated with open, treeless grasslands, but can still be correlated with the Bed IV fauna from Olduvai on the basis of surviving archaic forms. By the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene the open grassland character of the fauna, with the addition of a pronounced wetland component, is fully established in the Florisian faunas. The Florisian faunal character persists until the end of the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene, when six specialized grazing ungulates and the local wetland component became extinct. This point marks the appearance of the modern large mammal fauna in southern Africa, as we know it today.