Showing posts with the label
South Africa
A new study has re-discovered fossil collections from a 19th century hermit that validate 'phantom' fossil footprints collected in the 1950s showing dicynodonts coexisting with dinosaurs. Ske…
Imagine a year in Africa that summer never arrives. The sky takes on a gray hue during the day and glows red at night. Flowers do not bloom. Trees die in the winter. Large mammals like antelope becom…
There's a particular feeling of excitement that comes from receiving a gift. It's a feeling of the unknown, of anticipation – and then you unwrap the package and find something spectacular. R…
Homo naledi's relatively taller and more wear resistant molars enabled it to have a much more abrasive diet than other South African hominins. This is the result of a recent study published in th…
The acoustic qualities of a rock shelter may have been a key factor in its selection as a site for rock art and indicate a spiritual significance to the practice, according to a recent study, while s…
South Africa's history and economy has been built on its rich natural treasures of a number of precious metals, stones and minerals. The country's mineral deposits have been created over hund…
The lion population of Zimbabwe's Savé Valley Conservancy shows low genetic diversity despite improved numbers, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Laura Tensen…
More than 70 years ago two palaeontologists named Robert Broom and John Robinson discovered a skull at the Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg. They nicknamed the skull, which is believed to be abou…
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reveal how and when the typical globular brain shape of modern humans evolved. Their analyses based on cha…
In the Earth's early history, several billion years ago, only traces of oxygen existed in the atmosphere and the oceans. Today's air-breathing organisms could not have existed under those con…
The digital reconstruction of the skull of a 200-million-year-old South African dinosaur, Massospondylus, has made it possible for researchers to make 3D prints and in this way facilitate research on…
Scientists have found fossil evidence of deep-sea marine life burrowing up to eight metres below the seabed -- four times the previously observed depth for modern deep-sea life. Cross-cutting burrows…
South Africa's status as a major cradle in the African nursery of humankind has been reinforced with today's unveiling of "Little Foot," the country's oldest, virtually complete…
Many studies have suggested that the genetics of skin pigmentation are simple. A small number of known genes, it is thought, account for nearly 50 percent of pigment variation. However, these studies…
With less than 25,000 breeding pairs in existence today, it is an uphill battle for the African Penguin, which calls South Africa home. The 60 percent drop in their population since 2001 has put them…
