the terrestrial fauna in the habitat of "eremopezus" consisted mainly of the ancestors of animals occurring in africa today; among mammals particularly afrotheria were present. some entirely extinct lineages were also found, e.g. anthracotheriidae and creodonta. as regards birds, fossils are only plentiful from some ma later; as mentioned above, they generally represent the paleogene avifauna found around the shores of the shrinking tethys sea, whose descendants nowadays live in tropical africa. in quarry l-41, remains of a large ancestral stork (presumably "palaeoephippiorhynchus dietrichi") were present, indicating that two or three "e. eocaenus" (one right and two left feet were found) died in or next to a slow-moving or stagnant watercourse. this agrees with the view that the birds actually lived in such habitat, rather than their carcasses having been transported there by a flood or similar.