Dinosaur fossils on display at Maropeng

South Africa has a rich heritage of fossils ranging from dinosaur eggs to plant fossils, as well as earliest evidence of modern humans, "Homo sapiens". The earliest documented dinosaur fossil discovery in South Africa was in 1845.

There are many fossils still to be discovered in South Africa, but how do you know what to look for? In this video, Professor Bruce Rubidge, director of the Bernard Price Institute (BPI), explains how he discovered "Tapinocaninus pamelae", also known as "Fred", a 260-million-year-old pre-dinosaur.

Rubidge was speaking at the opening of the "Treasures of our Past" fossil display, which took place at Maropeng at the beginning of December 2010.

The BPI is a palaeoscientific research institute based at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg. The fossil display includes hominid and dinosaur fossils from the BPI, as well as from the Institute for Human Evolution, also based at Wits. The display will run until mid-January 2011.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Maropeng
• Cradle of Humankind
• Professor Bruce Rubidge
• Tapinocaninus pamelae
• dinosaur fossils
• South Africa