during the mousterian pluvial, the now-desiccated regions of northern africa were well-watered, bearing lakes, swamps, and river systems that no longer exist. what is now the sahara desert supported typical african wildlife of grassland and woodland environments: herbivores from gazelle to giraffe to ostrich, predators from lion to jackal, even hippopotamus and crocodile, as well as extinct forms like the pleistocene camel. in these respects the mousterian pluvial resembled the earlier abbassia pluvial; the later neolithic subpluvial was a weaker re-iteration of the same pattern.