dinosaur

A Wits University student is one of the authors of a report published in Scientific Reports that describes a new dinosaur found on a Free State farm. Named Pulanesaurus eocollum, it was "relatively small' at 8m long and weighing 5 tons.

How do you study tiny 200-million-year-old fossilised dinosaur embryo bones, at a resolution of .006 millimetres? Scan them in a synchrotron under high-energy X-rays generated by a kilometre-wide ring of electrons travelling at .99% of the speed of light.

Distinctive bones hidden among the many fossils at Wits University come from a newly discovered dinosaur. Found on the border of Lesotho and South Africa, the new dinosaur has been named Sefapanosaurus from a Sesotho word.

Dr Tyler Lyson and his colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have published a paper on the origin of the tortoise's shell, and how these creatures came to develop their breathing apparatus.

Dr Tyler Lyson and his colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have published a paper on the origin of the tortoise's shell, and how these creatures came to develop their breathing apparatus.

South Africa has eight World Heritage Sites, places identified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to be of "outstanding value to humanity".

The launch of the Centre of Excellence for Palaeosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand will help establish South Africa as a world leader in this field, says Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom.

Fossils from South Africa continue to produce the goods for palaeontology. The latest to emerge from one of the country's rocks is a bizarre, tiny new species of parrot-beaked, vampire-fanged, plant-eating dinosaur dating back some 200-million years.

Some take their efforts to the sky, while others enjoy a bit of conservation work as part of a vacation. Anti-rhino poaching efforts are taking unusual and innovative forms, all for the sake of the precious beasts.

A rare collection of original fossils that evolved over a period of 120-million years, dating back even further than the discovery of early hominids, is on display at Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind.
• No bedbugs for early humans