LOTHAGAM - A RECORD OF FAUNAL CHANGE IN THE LATE MIOCENE OF EAST-AFRICA

Lothagam is a richly fossiliferous late Miocene site near the western shore of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya. This site has yielded a diverse fauna documenting a chronological interval poorly known from elsewher e in Africa. Lothagam was first collected by an American research grou p in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Field studies by the National Mus eums of Kenya between 1989-1993 have recovered many additional vertebr ate fossils, including species previously unknown from Lothagam. This contribution presents a revised, formal stratigraphic framework, initi al results of a vertebrate systematic revision, and new interpretation s of the paleoenvironmental setting. Analysis of the sedimentary facie s and their fossil content indicates the presence of a large, slow mov ing, well-oxygenated perennial river with abundant backswamps and pond s. Comparisons with faunas from earlier middle to late Miocene Kenyan localities suggest that a major environmental change occurred at the e nd of the Miocene.