New fossil display at Maropeng: 300 million years in the making

Jul 20, 2012 | Matt van Onselen
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From left to right: Lindsay Marshall, Maropeng curator; Professor Bruce Rubidge, Director of the BPI; and Dr Bernhard Zipfel, Wits University collections curator. Photo by Bianca Bothma.

“South Africa has had an enormous impact on the field of palaeontology,” says Professor Bruce Rubidge, who was at Maropeng on 19 July for the opening of a new fossil display to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). The display offers a sneak peek at the rich fossil collection of Wits’s Bernard Price Institute (BPI).

Rubidge, director of the BPI, spoke about the country’s impressive fossil record. The fossils found locally cover 120-million years of evolution, he says. “The rocks in the Karoo cover a period from 300-million years ago to 180-million years ago, and that covers a time of 120-million years. Now, the importance of that is that it’s an almost continuous sedimentary record of what was happening for a period of 120-million years.”

This time span includes the development of what Rubidge calls “mammal-like reptiles”, which over hundreds of millions of years would gradually evolve into mammals. “Those are our ancestors,” he says, pointing at a Dinocephalia skull. The entire skeleton, he says, took roughly 23 years to expose.

Other fossils on display include: Erythrosuchus, Gorgonopsia, Massospondylus, Dicynodont, Antetonitrus and Therocephalia. Only one of the fossils on display was found outside of South Africa – Labidosaurus, which is seen as a transitional species between amphibian and reptile.

Edithand Of A Gorgonopsian
Hand of a Gorgonopsian. This hand clearly illustrates the hunting capabilities of these flesh-eating mammal-like reptiles. Photo by Bianca Bothma.

There is also the 195-million-year-old clutch of dinosaur eggs – the oldest fossilised dinosaur eggs in the world. Evidence found near the eggs – which included rare fossilised footprints – could tell palaeontologists more about the behaviour of dinosaurs.

The BPI was established by philanthropist Dr Bernard Price in 1945 in response to a plea made by renowned palaeoanthropologist Professor Robert Broom, who called for an institute to allow for the collection, study and preservation of fossils found in South Africa. Today the BPI houses fossils from all corners of the land. In this respect alone, Rubidge says, Wits has made a “huge contribution” to palaeontology.

Make your way to Maropeng for a sneak peak at this impressive collection. All of the fossils have been beautifully prepared and presented. Allow yourself to be taken back in time – much further than the hominids of the Cradle of Humankind – to meet our ancient ancestors.

The new fossil display will run until the end of October 2012.