Rodents from the late Middle Pleistocene Ngaloba Beds, associated with the L.H. 18 hominine from the site of Laetoli (Northern Tanzania)

A Middle Stone Age locality at the top of the Laetoli site stratigraphic sequence has yielded one of the best-documented archaic Homo sapiens skulls. This location has provided also some rodent remains that are described here. A total of eight genera were recognized, among which Tachyoryctes is the best represented, followed by Pedetes and various Muridae. The specimens are in low abundance, which prevents some precise specific attributions, but all are very close to modem taxa still living in Tanzania. The faunal assemblage of Ngaloba is different from that of the oldest Kabwe (Broken Hill) sites in Zambia, from Kapthurin site (Kenya), GvJm-22 (Kenya), Melka Kunture (Ethiopia) and from the more recent Ethiopian site of Goda Buticha. Some palaeoenvironmental analogies suggest that Homo sapiens at the Ngaloba Beds was living in an open and relatively arid grassland like in Lukenya Hills (Kenya) and Eyasi 1 sites (Tanzania), which confirms previous works.