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Figure 15.4. Fossil soils, Adrar Bous, south-central Sahara.
through the piedmont deposits flanking the mountain. The sections between Kas and
Nyertete near the village of UmmMari contain fossil oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis )and
Combretum leaf impressions embedded in reworked volcanic tuffs (Wickens, 1975b ;
Wickens, 1976a ;Wickens, 1976b ; Williams et al., 1980 ), as well as occasional red
paleosols developed on sediments derived from the weathered Precambrian Basement
Complex rocks that underlie and surround the volcanic massif ( Figure 15.5 ). The oil
palm fossils indicate the former presence of tropical rainforest, but the area is semi-
arid today. Originally thought to be of Holocene age, the presence of Developed
Oldowan/Early Acheulian stone tools (see Chapter 17 ) found in association with the
fossils and paleosols indicates an age between about 1.5 and 0.8 Ma for the soils and
plant fossils (Williams et al., 1980 ).
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