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
Elgin Reptiles the Permian and Triassic rocks. These are called the Hopeman Sandstone Formation and the Burghead Sandstone Formation, both part of the New Red Sandstone Supergroup Some marine reptiles have been found in a glacial erratic of Jurassic strata. Most of the sandstones are wind-blown desert dune deposits, but there are some river deposits and the later Jurassic deposits include mudstones. These rocks overly much older Devonian lake deposits from Lake Orcadie. The intervening Carboniferous sediments were eroded before the Permian deposition, leaving a 100 million year gap in the stratigraphy. This unusual sequence of rocks confused 19th century geologists for