the jebel qatrani formation is mainly composed of sandstones and mudstones, which were laid down as point bar and overbanks of meandering freshwater rivers, which drained the northeastern tip of africa westwards into a depression just inland from the tethys sea shores, and at least in the wet season must have expanded into large shallow lakes. the entire region was low-lying, and only a few million years (ma) before "eremopezus" inhabited these lands—and when sea levels were higher—submerged under the ocean. the climate was warmer than today, and the region probably was tropical with abundant rainfall during the monsoon season, as indicated by the paleosols formed from alluvial sediments and traces of buttress roots. altogether, the habitat must have resembled the niger delta of our time. the "eremopezus" fossils dated with confidence are from a time when there was apparently more forest and less grassland in the region than half a dozen million years later. the reed grasses of the subfamily arundinoideae were probably far less widespread in africa 35 ma than they are today, but it is fairly likely that other poales reeds—cyperaceae (maybe including the ancestors of the papyrus sedge "cyperus papyrus"), juncaceae and typhaceae—grew in aquatic habitats back then already.