The palaeontological history of the northern Sperrgebiet spans over 80 years, with three main periods of activity. In the 1920's nearly 500 fossils were collected and sent to Germany for detailed study. At the same time a small collection of mammals was sent to America. The period from 1930 to 1975 saw little field activity, but some reinterpretation of previous work was undertaken, mainly on the basis of comparisons with fossils from East Africa (Cooke, 1955; Heissig, 1971; Lavocat, 1973; MacInnes, 1953; Patterson, 1965; Savage, 1965; Whitworth, 1954). Palaeontological activity increased in the mid 70's (Hamilton and Van Couvering, 1977) and since 1993 has been carried out on an annual basis (Pickford and Senut, 2000). This paper reports the main points concerning the palaeontological history of the Early Miocene deposits in the region.