Cainozoic strata of the Northern Sperrgebiet comprise a wide range of deposits that accumulated by a variety of processes in diverse geomorphological settings including littoral marine zones, endorheic basins, shallow valleys, dolines, kamenitzas, volcanic craters and even on positive relief features. Fluids that eroded, transported and deposited sediments include water and wind, in a palaeoclimate that changed from humid subtropical to semi-arid and arid temperate with the passage of time. Diagenetic processes varied with time, being dominated in the Palaeogene by silicification, and during the Neogene by calcification. All this geological activity was played out against a background of changing sea levels and volcanic activity, a result of which is the juxtaposition of marine, terrrestrial and volcanic deposits, sometimes in the same depression. The resulting stratigraphic succession is, as a consequence, highly varied with rapid lateral and vertical changes in lithology, small sediment bodies often being separated from other deposits, all of which makes correlation of strata difficult. Palaeontology has played an important role in determining the relative positions of strata, and in some cases the biochronological ages of deposits, and have, as a result helped to sort out the stratigraphic sequence and the timing of events in the region. Such information is of importance to those interested in the origin and history of the diamond placer deposits of the Sperrgebiet. There remain, however, several uncertainties which require further attention. Fossils have also thrown a great deal of light on the palaeoenvironmental conditions that existed in the region since the Cretaceous