Much of what we know about Quaternary environmental changes in Africa comes from the exceptional number of geosites in the eastern and southern areas of the continent. In the East, the morphotectonic and volcanic activity in the Great Rift Valley led to the formation of open-air, fossil-rich thick sedimentary sequences. In the South, a great abundance of outstanding karstic sites that offer similar palaeobiological richness. All these sites often include evidence of human presence, such as fossil remains or artefacts. Thus, they are key to characterising the drivers of hominin evolution and Homo evolutionary success in the Quaternary, in a context marked by environmental transformations and changing ecosystem dynamics.

This session aims at presenting an updated and integrated overview of the diversity of Quaternary large mammal communities and the impact of environmental and climate variability on ecosystems, species interactions, and mammal dispersal and turnover, including hominins.