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This paper discusses the faunal content, the mammal biostratigraphy, and the environmental ecology of three important continental Tertiary vertebrate faunas from the Lower Rhine Embayment. The sites investigated are Rott (MP 30, Late Oligocene), Hambach 6C (MN 5, Middle Miocene), Frechen and Hambach 11 (both MN 16, Late Pliocene). Comparative analysis of the entire faunas shows the assemblages to exhibit many conformities in their general composition, presumably resulting from their preference for wet lowlands. It appears that very similar environmental conditions for vertebrates reoccurred during at least 20 Ma although the sites are located in a tectonically active region with high subsidence rates. Differences in the faunal composition are partly due to local differences in the depositional environment of the sites: lake deposits at the margin of the embayment (Rott), coal swamp and estuarine …