Reptiles and frogs of the Eastern Highlands Reptiles and frogs of the Eastern Highlands The reptiles and frogs of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and Mozambique mark a biodiversity hotspot for herpetofauna. Diverse frog and reptile communities include endemic species. The Eastern Highlands extend 300 kilometres (190 mi) along Zimbabwe's eastern border with Mozambique. There are two broadly defined high-altitude ecological habitats in the Eastern Zimbabwe montane forest-grassland mosaic; a wet lowland forest ecology predominates the eastern side of the mountain ranges, while a more arid ecology dominates the western side. The Highlands have a more equable climate than Zimbabwe's central plateau, with higher rainfall, low cloud
Evolution of reptiles that looked like modern mammals and, by the Middle Jurassic, the lineages leading to the three extant mammal groups — the monotremes, the marsupials, and the placentals — had diverged. Near the end of the Carboniferous, while the terrestrial reptiliomorph labyrinthodonts were still present, the synapsids evolved the first fully terrestrial large vertebrates, the pelycosaurs such as "Edaphosaurus". In the mid-Permian period, the climate turned drier, resulting in a change of fauna: The primitive pelycosaurs were replaced by the more advanced therapsids. The anapsid reptiles, whose massive skull roofs had no postorbital holes, continued and flourished throughout the Permian. The