This dataset contains the palynological counts (pollen & spores) for marine sediments from IODP Site 361-U1478, Mozambique Channel. The Site was drilled by the research vessel JOIDES Resolution during Expedition 361 ("South African Climates"). The data aims to reconstruct terrestrial ecosystem change in southern Africa during important periods in hominin evolution. Specifically, the pollen dataset can reveal the changing vegetation composition in the Limpopo catchment. The pollen dataset covers the early Pleistocene and late Pliocene (0.8 - 4.0 Ma before present) with an average timestep of 15 ka between samples.