New fossil exhibition at Maropeng, September 2 2009

This is the almost complete postcranial skeleton of a wild dog which may represent the oldest evidence of for Wild dogs in South Africa. It is a large animal approximately the size of a modern North American wolf. It shows interesting transitional features between regular canids (dogs) and the Cape Hunting Dog (Lycaon sp.) It has so far only been recovered from Gladysvale and is estimated to be just less than 1 million years old.

This is the cast of a modern human skull from the Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontology Collection.

Stw 505 Discovered in 1989 at Sterkfontein Caves. Partial but relatively complete cranium of an Australopithecus africanus. Stw 505 is the most complete hominin cranium discovered in Sterkfontein Member 4 since Broom’s excavations. It was found in situ in Member 4 breccia and is larger, on the whole, than any other cranium from Sterkfontein that has comparable parts.

Modern Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes and fossil baboons Parapapio sp. as a genus they are known from Sterkfontein Member 4, Swartkrans Member 1 and Kromdraai A. They range in time in South Africa from 3.0 to 2.0 million years ago.

A 2.5 million year old skull of Hyaena hyaena from Makapansgat in the Limpopo Province. Modern Hyaena hyaena or striped hyaena is generally solitary, nocturnal scavengers which are found in North Africa, Middle East and Asia.

The fossil is the skull of Cynognathus crateronotus(BP/1/4664), a cynodont (dog tooth) which lived 235 million years ago.

This skull (BP/1/4409) belongs to ferocious predator or gorgonopsian (terrible eye) which lived 255 million years ago and was collected near Pearston in the Eastern Cape. Gorgonopsians were the lions of their time. They probably held their prey down with their powerful forelimbs then disemboweled them with their long canine teeth.

The fossil on display here is a cast. Actual Archaeopteryx specimens are treasured and are held in collections or displayed behind armoured glass in museums around the world. Since 1860, 10 specimens of Archaeopteryx have been found, all in limestone near Solenhofen in Germany. This limestone is so fine-grained that it even preserves the impressions of feathers and has been used by artists and printers for lithographic plates. Archaeopteryx lived about 145 million years ago.

A 2.5 million year old fossil snake from Makapansgat in the Limpopo province. Most snakes are completely limbless but certain groups of snakes such as pythons and boas still have the remains of a pelvis. The fossil here has no limbs but certain Cretaceous fossil snakes still have well developed hind limbs.

Model of an embryo courtesy of the Hunterian Museum, University of the Witwatersrand. Adult mammals do not have gills, humans do not have tails and snakes do not have legs but these structures are clearly present in their embryos during development. These structures suggest that during development organisms often have characters which they must have obtained from their ancestors.

The fossil is a 2.5 million year old lower jaw of a rodent, the Cape porcupine (Hystrix africaeustralis) from Makapansgat in the Limpopo province. Modern representatives of this species are large growing up to 30 kg. The modern skeleton belongs to the common house rat (Rattus norvegicus)

All living organisms from bacteria, through roses to elephants have their genetic information stored in DNA. The DNA is built from the same chemicals. These chemicals are a phosphate group, a deoxyribose sugar and the bases adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine.

2 billion year old algal domes in dolomite from Makapansgat in Limpopo Province.

The fossils include the skull of small 190 million year old prosauropod dinosaur Massosponylus carinatus (BP/1/5241) collected near Barkley East, a small 246 million year old mammal ancestor or therapsid Thrinaxodon liorhinus (BP/1/1737) collected near Oliviershoek Pass, a 100 million year old cockroach from Orapa, Botswana and 260 million year old leaves from Glossopteris plants (BP/2/2704). According to the theory of evolution all these groups (the dinosaurs, mammal ancestors, insects and plants) once shared common ancestor.

Copy of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, this copy of The Origins of Species by Charles Darwin has been in Prof Francis Thackeray’s family for more than 100 years. It is opened on the page with the only illustration in the book showing the concepts of common ancestry and change through time.

Modern Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes and fossil baboons Parapapio sp. as a genus they are known from Sterkfontein Member 4, Swartkrans Member 1 and Kromdraai A. They range in time in South Africa from 3.0 to 2.0 million years ago.