Contact details:

Department of Botany & Zoology
University of Stellenbosch
Private Bag X1
Matieland 7602
South Africa

Tel: +27 21 808-3236
Fax: +27 21 808-2405
E-mail: lwillems@sun.ac.za

Palaeontology at Stellenbosch

MORTUI VIVOS DOCENT

Research:

Prof DE Van Dijk: Salientia

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Palaeontology a Window on the Past

As a source of new and unique palaeontological and neontological specimens the biodiversity of Africa has been a source of interest since grecian times and has been commented upon as early as c.350 BC by Aristoteles .

South Africa has a rich history in Palaeontology and some of the most unique examples of ancient life have been extracted from the vast rock sequences that are available for study. These range through time from some of the earliest examples of unicellular life at about 3.2 thousand million years BP to the world famous Therapsida or Mammal-like Reptiles of the Karoo, right up to the early remains of our own species.

Field trip to the Karoo (24kb)

Palaeontology, and specifically palaeobiology, serves to broaden and enrich the study of organismic evolution as it adds the valuable parameters of time, phylogeny and taphonomy. The historical component in Biology is essential for the unravelling of complex problems like mass extinctions and phylogenetic and biogeographical studies.

Fossil trackway (30kb)

Additional information can be obtained from:

Dr J.A. van den Heever
Tel:021-8083223

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