Mid-Pleistocene of Africa: Large mammals

Glacial cycles changed from ∼41 to ∼100 kyr periodicity at the start of the middle Pleistocene. The resultant climatic instability affected faunas across the globe. In Africa, this shift did not have an immediate impact, however over time, a number of large-bodied ecological specialists went extinct. These were survived by extant smaller-bodied ecological generalists that were better able to respond to climatically driven challenges. In this chapter we review the fossil record of the large mammals of the African middle Pleistocene and highlight its significance for understanding the evolutionary history of the modern African large mammal community.