Early Miocene grassland ecosystem at Bukwa, Mount Elgon, Uganda

Fossil plants and terrestrial gastropods collected by the Uganda Palaeontology Expedition at Bukwa site I in 1997 and 1998, throw light on the palaeoenvironmental conditions that characterised the area during the end of the Early Miocene, some 17.5 Ma ago. Some of the evidence indicates the presence of grasslands in situ at the locality, but part of the fossil gastropod assemblage and some of the plants suggest the presence of woodland to forest nearby.