干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Since the mid 1990s, the Mission paleoanthropologique francotchadienne (MPFF) conducts yearly paleontological field investigations of the Miocene-Pliocene of the Chad Basin. This article synthesizes some of the results of the MPFT, with focus on the Chad Basin development during the Neogene. We propose an overview of the depositional paleoenvironments of this part of Africa at different scales of time and space, based on a multidisciplinary approach (sedimentary geology, geomorphology, geophysic, numerical simulations and geochronology). The Miocene-Pliocene paleoenvironments are examined through the sedimentary archives of the early hominids levels and the Holocene Lake Mega-Chad episode illustrates the last major paleoenvironmental change in this area. The sedimentary record of the Chad Basin since the Late Miocene can be schematized as the result of recurrent interactions from lake to desert environments. To cite this article: M. Schuster et al., C R. Geoscience 341 (2009). (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Academie des sciences.