This work provides the first overview of mammal species distributions in
Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 18 ky) to modern time. It is
derived from data published mainly in the zooarchaeological literature
until 2009. During a post-doctoral project hosted in the zoological
department of mammal collection at the Naturhistoriches Museum in Vienna
(Austria), the occurrences of taxa in archaeological sites on the
African continent were recorded in a database, integrating geographical
and chronological information. This record offers the opportunity to
produce a chronological atlas of mammalian distributions by presenting
their occurrences on successive maps over the last 18 ky. This work is
useful for zooarchaeologists dealing with one particular species by
providing a bibliographical work that documents its past locations. It
must be noted that fauna are mainly documented through their presence at
archaeological sites and are therefore tied to the presence of humans
and their activities. This may only partially reproduce their true past
distribution. However, the sites offer a good coverage throughout space
and time and generally reflect the extent of mammalian distributions,
although the limits of their distributions may be further refined. The
atlas will aid in the investigation of palaeoecological issues, such as
the capacity of mammals to adapt to climatic change and respond to human
disturbance in the recent past of Africa. The database also provides
information that is fundamental to a better understanding of what
influenced the present-day distribution, dynamism and structure of
mammalian communities in Africa. By incorporating a larger temporal
scale to modern ecological studies, it may help control their
conservation since desiccation and human disturbance in Africa is still
a worrying question for their future.
