Stratigraphy and mammalian paleontology of neogene sites in the Manonga valley, Northern Tanzania

In 1990 the Wembere-Manonga Palaeontological Expedition (WMPE) conducted preliminary geological and palaeontological research in the Manonga Valley of northern Tanzania. The expedition succeeded in recovering thousands of vertebrate fossils, including over eight hundred taxonomically identifiable mammals, from ten different localities. The fossils were preserved in a series of fine-grained calcareous sediments that were deposited in an extensive but relatively shallow lake basin. A preliminary analysis of the fauna indicates that the fossil sites probably range in age from late Miocene to late Pliocene (ca.4-6 Ma). The estimated age of the sites in the Manonga Valley, and their close geographical proximity to major hominid-bearing localities in northern Tanzania, makes them of evident potential significance for research into the earliest stages of human evolution