Page 11 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

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Herbivores were abundant, 15 of the 17 families recorded still occur in Africa, the ‘peccary’

now occurs elsewhere and the other is extinct. While the ‘peccary’ was tiny, there were two
types of giant pig, twice the size of the living bush pig. The disappearance of the ‘peccaries’

is ascribed to the reduction of suitable dense riverine undergrowth, and the giant pigs evolved
into more warthog-like animals and inhabited more open country. There were three types of

giraffe, one similar to the living one; a large extinct short-necked giraffe; and an okapi-like
species. Their habitat preferences indicate that there was still some dense forest (okapi) and

woodland (giraffe and ? short-necked giraffe.) The “catastrophic” mortality pattern of the

large numbers of short-necked giraffes, which are common in the river channel deposits,
suggests that they were drowned by seasonal floods and washed downriver. A large white

rhino, one of the earliest known ancestors of the modern species, is sure evidence of the

presence of grasslands. This is confirmed by a horse and some of the antelope which were
also grazers. Gomphotheres, one of the group from which elephants were descended, and a

true elephant, possibly ancestral to the mammoths, were denizens of the forest and woodland.
There were nyala-like species, a buffalo, two musk-ox-like species (no longer represented in

Africa), waterbuck, members of the hartebeest group, a steenbok and a gazelle. Another
species no longer found in Africa was the boselaphine, related to the nilgai, which now

occurs only in India.

Others include the golden mole, a bat, a hyrax, a hare, rodents, scaly ant-eater and aardvark.

The rarest mammal was a monkey or small baboon. This was probably because they could
not survive a dry season that did not provide sufficient food for their needs; similarly, the

early human ancestors of the time are found in tropical/sub-tropical regions and may not have
developed sufficiently yet to have adapted to more-temperate regions.

There were also fresh water crustaceans, marine and estuarine shellfish and fish, frogs,
lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises, including one closely related to our common angulate

tortoise.

As the sea level rose to its peak, the river mouth moved towards Hopefield to the east of

Langegaanweg which became part of an isolated coastal barrier beach. It was built up of