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PALAEOECOLOGY

Emergence of the African savannah

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 588–589 (2019)Cite this article

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African savannah grasslands initially proliferated in the late Miocene due to declining atmospheric CO2, rather than previously proposed regional climate drying. Supplanting previous woodland vegetation due to photosynthetic adaptations, these grasslands set the stage for subsequent mammalian evolutionary trends on the continent.

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Fig. 1: Kenyan savannah.

Volodymyr Burdiak / Alamy Stock Photo

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geophysics and Remote Sensing Unit, Council for Geoscience, Western Cape regional office, South Africa

    Hayley Cawthra

  2. African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Hayley Cawthra

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  1. Hayley Cawthra
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Correspondence to Hayley Cawthra.

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Cawthra, H. Emergence of the African savannah. Nat. Geosci. 12, 588–589 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0412-9

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