A world without humans - IOL SciTech | IOL.co.za: "A world without humans
February 17 2011 at 09:19am
By Neo Maditla
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
MARKING TIME: A Sivatheres jaw, with teeth still intact. Marks on the teeth give clues as to how the animal died. Picture: Ben Loveday
Digging around in dirt all day may not be considered the best job by far, but when the end result is finding a fossilised bone dating back millions of years, it can’t get more exciting for paleontologist Pippa Haarhoff, who manages the West Coast Fossil Park in Langebaan.
For Haarhoff and her co-researchers, their finds hold clues to reconstructing, in as much detail as possible, “what exactly happened” millions of years ago to make this part of the West Coast an “amazing burial site” for more than 200 different species of fossil animals.
The site is outside Langebaan on the R45 and is known scientifically as the Langebaanweg fossil site. It was home to a phosphate mine until operations ceased in 1993."
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