Micromammals as palaeoenvironmental indicators of the southern African Quaternary

Abstract

Micromammals from archaeological cave sites have provided considerable information on environmental (vegetational and climatic) conditions during the Quaternary in southern Africa. The material basis is jaws of small mammals below 150 g mass. An underlying principle of palaeoenvironmental reconstruction is that each taxon carries with it, or can be said to represent, a more or less detailed suite of environmental information. More explicitly, members of a given taxon may be known to inhabit certain habitats, aspects of which may include vegetation, landform and climate, and to have certain biological or ecological characteristics. Palaeoenvironmental interpretation borrows extensively from ecology and biology, both for methods and data. For this reason, it is opportune to re-consider the validity of some previous assumptions in the light of significant improvements in understanding of modern processes as well as the constraints implicit in palaeoecological studies. With knowledge has come increased difficulty in extracting reliable information. Advances in identification of modern taxa, especially at the species level, make it more difficult to equate identifications based on bones with those based on microbiological material. The development of the field of taphonomy has greatly impacted on interpretation of fossil samples. The environmental correlates of mean individual size, life-history adaptations of species richness and diversity are harder to separate from the suite of factors now known to be involved but are still worth investigating. Currently, micromammal studies can probably be characterised as being in an intermediate, rather conservative, phase of development but can be expected to progress once more information and understanding from modern ecological studies is incorporated into palaeo studies.