Page 9 - Bulletin 2 1998

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stress and burnt bones indicate that there were seasonal droughts and veldfires which would

have maintained more open vegetation.

Langebaanweg has the largest variety of birds from any pre-Quaternary deposit in the world.
Marine types include several species of penguin and various petrels which probably bred on

the high granite islands, an albatross, a gannet, and cormorants which appear related to those
we see along our coasts. There were also various shore birds and other species such as grebe,

ibis, hamerkop and ducks, characteristic of estuaries and saltmarshes, and terrestrial types

such as an ostrich which was larger than the modern species, a stork, birds of prey such as
falcons, hawks, an eagle, a possible vulture and owls, a crane, a bustard, sandgrouse, pigeons

and doves, mousebirds, woodpeckers and many others. The most common species was a

small froncolin from deposits of the estuarine flats. Relatives of most of these species occur
in the region today, one of the exceptions being parrots, the nearest of which now only occur

500 km to the north along the Orange River.

Of the 14 mammalian orders now represented in Africa and its surrounding oceans, only that
which includes manatees and dugongs was absent. Several now non-African groups, such as

the bears, true seals, wolverines, ‘peccaries’, etc., were also present (Fig. 1.3.) Some groups,

such as the sabre-toothed cats, have since become extinct. Carnivores were more numerous,
than today, and it is thought that the diversity of hyaena types was possible because the sabre-

toothed cats left far more flesh on the carcasses than lions do; thus, when the sabre-toothed
cats declined, so did the hyaenas, although these later extinctions also coincided with the

emergence of tool-making people whose efficiency may have upset the ecological balance
among carnivorous species. The role of jackals, which were absent, was taken by a civet in

spite of the fact that almost the reverse should now be true. The most spectacular of the

Langebaanweg carnivores was undoubtedly the bear, related to the giant panda, which
probably weighed up to 750 kg (whereas lions are normally about 200 kg.) Seals, probably

ancestral to the Antarctic crab eater seal, were very common and probably had rookeries on

the islands.