非洲热带雨林主要分布在刚果盆地、几内亚湾沿岸和马达加斯加岛东部地区，面积为60多万平方公里，位居世界第二大热带雨林，仅次于南美的亚马逊热带雨林。

Fig.1. 非洲热带雨林的分布（图片来自：http://www.mongabay.com/images）

   非洲热带雨林物种繁多，有8000多种植物，其中木本植物约有600种。因此，它是名副其实的热带植物王国，为众多珍贵的野生动物提供了栖息地，如：猩猩。20世纪50年代末，Jane Goodall （1934--）从伦敦走进非洲，开始了黑猩猩的野外研究。参见：

Jane Goodall （1934--）http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall

(1) Congo Basin(刚果盆地)

The Congo Basin is the sedimentarybasinof the CongoRiver. It is in west equatorialAfrica.

The basin begins in the highlands of the East African Rift system with input from the Chambeshi River, the Uele and Ubangi Rivers in the upper reaches and the Lualaba River draining wetlands in the middle reaches. Due to the young age and active uplift of the East African Rift at the headlands, the river's yearly sediment load is very large but the drainage basin occupies large areas of lowrelief throughout much of its area.^[1] The basin is a total of 3.7 millionsquare kilometers and is home to some of the largest undisturbed stands of tropical rainforest on the planet, in addition to large wetlands. The basin ends where the river empties its load in the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The climate is equatorial tropical,with two rainy seasons including very high rainfalls, and high temperature year round. The basin is home to the endangered western lowland gorilla.

Countries wholly or partially inthe Congo region:

• Angola

• Burundi

• Cameroon

• Central African Republic

• Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Republic of the Congo

• Rwanda

• South     Sudan

• Tanzania

• Zambia

[引自  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Basin]

Fig.2.刚果河（引自http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_River）

刚果盆地位于非洲中西部，是非洲最大盆地，拥有仅次于亚马孙雨林的世界第二大热带雨林。

刚果盆地是前寒武纪非洲古陆块的核心部分，为古老的变质花岗岩、片麻岩、片岩、石英岩等所组成，四周的高地则为古老结晶岩构成。^[7][5]中生代时，此盆地本是一内陆湖，后经地壳抬升，湖水外泄而形成盆地。^[5]从盆地边缘到中央，岩层分布从老到新；大部分地区为中生代沉积，只有盆地中心有少数新生代沉积。^[7][14]此外，该盆地也是低纬度重要的成盐盆地，含盐地层赋存于白垩纪地层中部。

[引自 http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%9A%E6%9E%9C%E7%9B%86%E5%9C%B0]

(2) The Congo Rainforest （刚果雨林）

While nine countries (Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republicof the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia) have part of their territory in the Congo Basin, conventionally six countries with extensive forest cover in the region are generally associated with the Congorainforest: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, theDemocratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. (Technicallymost of Gabon and parts of the Republic of Congo are in the Ogooue River Basin,while a large chunk of Cameroon is in the Sanaga River Basin). Of these sixcountries, DRC contains the largest area of rainforest, with 107 million hectares, amounting to 60 percent of Central Africa's lowland forest cover.

The Congo rainforest is known for its high levels of biodiversity, including more than 600 tree species and 10,000 animal species.Some of its most famous residents include forest elephants, gorillas,chimpanzees, okapi, leopards, hippos, and lions.

Fig.3.刚果热带雨林

[引自http://rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/#.VNfJ8E10ypoBy Rhett Butler]

(3)The origin and evolution of African tropical rainforest (非洲热带雨林的起源和演变)

   非洲热带雨林的起源和演变问题缺乏直接大化石证据。

流行观点：热带雨林和被子植物的起源及发展—“The original cradle of angiosperm evolution might lie in Gondwana land,a supercontinent of the Southern Hemisphere thought to have existed in the Mesozoic Era (252 to 66 million years ago) and consisted of Africa, South America,Australia, peninsular India, and Antarctica.”

喀麦隆晚世新始到晚渐新世的孢粉证据：“The earliest solid evidence for angiosperm tropical rainforest in Africa is based primarily on Late Eocene to Late Oligocene (ca. 39-26 Myr ago) pollen assemblages from Cameroon, which are rich in forest families.”( Jacobs, 2004)

哺乳动物化石 vs 植物化石：非洲新生代哺乳动物化石（Cenozoic Mammals of Africa）与植物  化石的对比问题

相关文献：

Jacobs,B.F., 2004. Paleobotanicalstudies from tropical Africa: relevance to the evolution of forest, woodland,and savannah biomes. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B359: 1573-1583.

 Jacobs, B.F., 2006. The plant fossilrecord and implications for phytogeography in tropical Africa. Pp. 191-203 In:Taxonomy and Ecology of African Plants, their Conservation and Sustainable Use.Proceedings of the 17th Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora ofTropical Africa (AETFAT) Congress, Ethiopia. Kew, London.

Ancient Africa mysteries: Evidence is weak for tropical rainforest 65 million years ago in Africa’s low-latitudes

http://blog.smu.edu/research/2010/10/20/ancient-africa-mysteries-evidence-is-weak-for-tropical-rainforest-65-million-years-ago-in-africas-low-latitudes/

THE DISTRIBUTION AND VARIETY OFEQUATORIAL RAIN FOREST（byJonathan Adams, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA）

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/rainfo.html

LarsWerdelin (Editor),William Joseph Sanders (Editor)，CenozoicMammals of Africa

（Hardcover, 1008 pages，ISBN: 9780520257214，July2010）

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520257214

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/132447/Congo-basin

http://interesting-africa-facts.com/Africa-Landforms/African-Rainforest-Facts.html

http://www.mongabay.com/images/rainforests/rainforest_map_africa.jpg

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/606576/tropical-rainforest

=============

本期编目

古植物学的故事306期[总第307期]      

Story of Palaeobotany Series (No.306) [The 307^thissue in total]

Palaeobotany Safari to Africa

非洲热带雨林及其古植物学未解之谜:非洲热带雨林的起源和演变问题

The unsolved palaeobotanical riddle: origin and evolution of African tropical rainforests

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-867409.html

2015-2-11 23:06