The mid-Cretaceous palaeoenvironment of central Southern Africa (Orapa, Botswana)

Sedimentology and depositional environments of the Red Sandstone Group, Rukwa Rift Basin, southwestern Tanzania: New insight into Cretaceous and Paleogene terrestrial ecosystems and tectonics in sub-equatorial Africa

“…Unfortunately, these deposits are unfossiliferous and their age is too poorly constrained to provide much resolution. The best records for the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene come from isolated kimberlite crater lake deposits containing important floral and faunal remains, located in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania (e.g., McKay and Rayner, 1986;Smith, 1986;Rayner, 1987;Bamford, 1990;Rayner et al, 1991Rayner et al, , 1997Harrison et al, 2001;Gunnell et al, 2003). Aside from these examples, no other unequivocal continental Paleogene deposits are known from anywhere in subequatorial Africa prior to this report, with the exception of mostly unfossiliferous and poorly age-constrained silcretes across DRC and Angola (gres polymorphs; Cahen, 1954) and southern Africa (Kalahari Group; Haddon and McCarthy, 2005).…”

The first scarabaeid beetle (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae) described from the Mesozoic (Late-Cretaceous) of Africa

“…The insects' burial and preservation is thought to have come about through the infilling of a crater lake by mass flows of epiclastic material from the crater's sides (Rayner et al 1991). That a large assemblage of aquatic insects is not found in the deposits has led to the suggestion that volcanic leachates produced inimical conditions for life in the lake's waters (McKay and Rayner 1986).…”

“…Mesic forest may have predominated over the wider area contrasting with sparser and earlier successional vegetation on the crater sides (Bamford 1990). Sedimentology, dating methodology, palaeoenvironment and selected references to the fossil flora and fauna are dealt with by McKay and Rayner (1986), Rayner et al (1991), Rayner (1993) and Rayner et al (1997).…”

Maar-diatreme volcanoes: A review

“…6 coarse-grained material formed by collapse of crater walls, formation of debris fans, rock falls, debris flows, etc. (Smith, 1986;Rayner et al, 1991;White, 1992;Pirrung et al, 2008). Later, quiet lacustrine sedimentation will develop in the deep centre of the lake, including the mud and diatomite layers that are of great use in studies of paleoclimate (Zolitschka, 1992;Ognjanova-Rumenova and Vass, 1998;Kaiser et al, 2006;Lindqvist and Lee, 2009).…”