A proposed drainage evolution model for Central Africa—Did the Congo flow east?

Stankiewicz, Jacek; Wit, Maarten J. de

doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2005.11.008

Cited by 116 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…4), which indicates a neotectonic control on drainage distribution. The Congo Basin has experienced significant epeirogenic movements which have drastically re-organized its hydrology, reversing the direction of the formerly east-flowing Congo river since the Miocene (Stankiewicz and de Wit, 2006). Along the southeastern flanks of the Congo Basin, rift-related tectonics in the Upemba graben has isolated drainage systems since the Plio-Pleistocene, resulting in vicariant speciation of lechwe species (Cotterill, 2005).…”

Section: The Origin Of Lac Télé: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lac Télé structure, Republic of Congo: Geological setting of a cryptozoological and biodiversity hotspot, and evidence against an impact origin

Master

2010

Journal of African Earth Sciences

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Section: The Origin Of Lac Télé: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lac Télé structure, Republic of Congo: Geological setting of a cryptozoological and biodiversity hotspot, and evidence against an impact origin

Master

2010

Journal of African Earth Sciences

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“…Southern Africa was rugged and well above sea level, with relief ranging from sea level (along the Indian Ocean coast stretching from Mozambique to Natal, South Africa) to ≥ 750 m. The general paleo-topography shows that the Paleo-Congo River probably drained into the Proto-Indian Ocean with occasional incursions of this ocean into the African interior from the northeast (Stankiewicz and de Wit, 2006).…”

Section: High Topography Of Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Kalahari Epeirogeny and climate change: differentiating cause and effect from core to space

Wit

2007

South African Journal of Geology

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Southern Africa's high Kalahari plateau and its flanking mountain ranges formed over an extended period of ~200 million years through vertical tectonic processes different from those at convergent plate boundaries. We refer to this as the Kalahari epeirogeny. Episodic uplift and erosion during the Kalahari epeirogeny is inferred from thermo-chronology and from stratigraphy of sediment accumulated around its continental margin. A total thickness of 2 to 7 km of rock (of which basalt was a major component) was eroded from the subcontinent's surface during two punctuated episodes of exhumation, in the early-Cretaceous and in the mid-Cretaceous. Major exhumation was over by the end of the Cretaceous, and the rate of erosion decreased by more than an order of magnitude to remove less than 1 km thickness of rock during the Cenozoic. Cosmogenic dating shows that erosion rates today are almost an order of magnitude less still.The cause for the Kalahari epeirogeny remains elusive, but three striking observations stand out: (i) major exhumation occurred during the late Mesozoic break-up of Gondwana; (ii) large scale basaltic magmatism closely match two accelerated episodes of exhumation: first along the west coast (~132 Ma, Etendeka large igneous province [LIP], associated with vast amounts of underplating along this entire passive margin), and the second flanking the sheared south coast margin (~90 Ma, Agulhas oceanic LIP). Yet exhumation that might have accompanied the vast Karoo LIP (~180 Ma) is not readily detected; (iii) the two main regional episodes of accelerated exhumation and coastal sediment accumulation are near synchronous with two regional 'spikes' of kimberlite intrusions: >450 kimberlites at ~90 Ma, and >200 kimberlites at ~120 Ma. Southern Africa is underlain by an anomalous warm region in the lowermost ~1500 km of the mantle that is linked to core to mantle heat loss. This warm region was inherited from a large Cretaceous thermo-chemical anomaly in the mantle created during long-lived subduction beneath Gondwana. Associated Mesozoic kimberlite genesis and basaltic magmatism may have been sufficient to cause volatile/heat-induced density changes in the lithospheric mantle of southern Africa to sustain the Kalahari plateau. In addition, such changes may have been induced by tectonic uplift and decompressional melting resulting from far-field collision processes between Africa and Europe, and/or final continental lithosphere decoupling between the Falkland plateau and southern Africa. CO 2 released into the ocean-atmosphere system during the Kalahari epeirogeny contributed to the global mid-Cretaceous hot-house conditions. However, because the CO 2 -consumption rate associated with basalt weathering is about eight times that of granite, atmospheric CO 2 was also efficiently sequestrated during the rapid erosion of Karoo basalt. Thus, the Kalahari epeirogeny also may have catalysed the onset of long-term global Cenozoic cooling.

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“…Note that these ages are considerably older than some previous estimates of even a few years ago, which used a faster genetic mutation rate that placed the Pancestor split at around 2-1 mya [Caswell et al, 2008;Stone et al, 2010], or even just under a million years ago Hey, 2010;Won & Hey, 2005]. The divergence of bonobos from chimpanzees followed the establishment of the Congo River [Myers Thompson, 2003;Prufer et al, 2012;Stankiewicz & de Wit, 2006], with modern bonobos isolated to the south of the river. The bonobochimpanzee split appears to have been relatively rapid and allopatric, unlike the more drawn out divergence seen, for example, among eastern and western gorillas, Bornean and Sumatran orangutans, and the human-Pan split [Mailund et al, 2012;Prufer et al, 2012].…”

Section: Dating and Demographic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

On the tool use behavior of the bonobo‐chimpanzee last common ancestor, and the origins of hominine stone tool use

Haslam

2014

American J Primatol

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The last common ancestor (LCA) shared by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus) was an Early Pleistocene African ape, which, based on the behavior of modern chimpanzees, may be assumed to be a tool-using animal. However, the character of tool use in the Pan lineage prior to the 20th century is largely unknown. Here, I use available data on wild bonobo tool use and emerging molecular estimates of demography during Pan evolution to hypothesise the plausible tool use behavior of the bonobo-chimpanzee LCA (or "Pancestor") at the start of the Pleistocene, over 2 million years ago. This method indicates that the common ancestor of living Pan apes likely used plant tools for probing, sponging, and display, but it did not use stone tools. Instead, stone tool use appears to have been independently invented by Western African chimpanzees (P. t. verus) during the Middle Pleistocene in the region of modern Liberia-Ivory Coast-Guinea, possibly as recently as 200,000-150,000 years ago. If this is the case, then the LCA of humans and chimpanzees likely also did not use stone tools, and this trait probably first emerged among hominins in Pliocene East Africa. This review also suggests that the consistently higher population sizes of Central African chimpanzees (P. t. troglodytes) over the past million years may have contributed to the increased complexity of wild tool use seen in this sub-species today.

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A proposed drainage evolution model for Central Africa—Did the Congo flow east?

Cited by 116 publications

References 27 publications

Lac Télé structure, Republic of Congo: Geological setting of a cryptozoological and biodiversity hotspot, and evidence against an impact origin

Lac Télé structure, Republic of Congo: Geological setting of a cryptozoological and biodiversity hotspot, and evidence against an impact origin

The Kalahari Epeirogeny and climate change: differentiating cause and effect from core to space

On the tool use behavior of the bonobo‐chimpanzee last common ancestor, and the origins of hominine stone tool use

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