Fynbos palaeoecology: A preliminary synthesis

Abstract

Current knowledge of aspects of the geology, soils and palaeontology relevant to the study of the palaeoecology of the fynbos region, the southern margin of the African continent, is surveyed in nine essays and three introductory reviews. Precambrian sediments, granites and rocks of the early Phanerozoic Cape Supergroup, underlie the greater part of the region and the distribution of the main rock units is shown on an accompanying map. The main physiographic features were established by folding during the Cape orogeny (278-215 Myr) and by subsequent erosion and faulting, in part associated with the outlining of the continental margin at the end of the Jurassic (140 Myr). The Cenozoic deposits (0-65 Myr) are discussed in a synopsis of the evolution of the modern landscape. Soils as indicators of palaeoenvironments are reviewed and a description and maps of soils of the Cape coastal platform are included. The palaeontological record as known from the study of the late Tertiary vertebrates, Quaternary large and small mammals. Cretaceous and Cenozoic plant microfossils and macrofossils, is described and the palaeoenvironmental implications are reviewed. The history of human occupation of the region is put into perspective. It is clear that the fynbos region, an ancient landscape of high terrain diversity, showing varied substrate lithologies and a mosaic of eutrophic and dystrophic soils, has not been a constant environment over geological time. It is in this setting under conditions of dynamic environmental change that the composition of the modern biota has been determined and the specialized character of fynbos ecosystems has developed.