Читать книгу Bats of Southern and Central Africa - Ara Monadjem - Страница 35

The greater portion of southern Africa lies at an average elevation of 1,000 m above sea level. Aptly termed the Kalahari Plateau, this hinterland extends north far across the Congo basin, with its northeastern boundaries abutting the East African Rift System along Lake Tanganyika. This anomalous topography is geologically ancient, dating from before the final break up of Gondwana in the Mesozoic (∼127 Ma) and is likely even older. The characteristically subtle changes in drainage and landforms across the Kalahari Plateau (de Wit 2007) have exercised marked control over biogeographical processes over the past 30 million years (Cotterill 2003, 2005, 2006).