In the marine deposits are fossil molluscan seashells, brachiopods, crustaceans (barnacles, crabs, prawns, ostracods), echinoids, polychaete worm tubes, corals, bryozoans & foraminifera. Shark teeth are common, other fish teeth occur. Bones of whales, dolphins, seals & seabirds.
Trace fossils made by prawns, worms, echinoids, anemones, bivalves, fish etc, are pervasive.
Bones of land mammals appear in estuarine and lagoonal deposits.
In the aeolianites are land snails, tortoises, moles, ostrich bones and egg shells, insect traces. Larger animal bones are sparsely scattered on palaeosurfaces (bovids, zebra, rhino, elephant, pigs etc). Deposits associated with vleis, pans, springs very rich, especially birds, micromammals,
Part of the Coastal Cenozoic DepositsUnprecedented earlier Tertiary vegetation record, inadequately sampled to date. Marine fossil record is 4 discrete “time slices” or “windows” into the evolution of the coastal biota during Neogene-Quaternary global cooling, from tropical conditions to those today. Langebaanweg contains a rich sample of land fauna deposited c. 5ma in an estuary. Other examples may exist.
Fossil bone finds during research on the Northern Cape coast mines have enabled age estimations based on correlations with the African vertebrate biochronology. Fossil data associated with the aeolian record overlaps with the presence of hominids eg. at Elandsfontein, Duinefontein and Swartklip archaeological sites
Much lost to geoheritage due to absence of palaeontological management plans in the past.
Sparse fossils in aeolianites very important for filling gaps in terrestrial faunal record.
Potential floral record in vlei deposits.
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