Including the references published in this volume, just over 100 scientific articles have been published on the terrestrial Miocene palaeontology of the Namib Desert and the Sperrgebiet, Namibia. The first paper on the subject appeared during the second decade of the 20th Century, just prior to the First World War (Stromer, 1914). The war years effectively interrupted scientific research, and it wasn’t until the 1920's that the pace of publication quickened with 8 papers appearing during the decade, all on the palaeontology of the northern Sperrgebiet. There followed a lengthy period from 1929 (Hopwood, 1929) until 1954 (Whitworth, 1954) when nothing at all was published, even of a general nature. The 1950's and 1960's saw two papers published each decade, not on new collections from Namibia, but as part of revisions of groups (Hyracoidea, Macroscelididae and Carnivora) undertaken at the level of the continent. The late 1970's saw an abrupt increase in the quantity of publications (10 papers), thanks to the discovery of the rich site at Arrisdrift on the northern bank of the Orange River.