Rare fossils found in SA
2005-10-13 11:08
Cape Town - Giraffe fossils, as well as a whale fossil, were recently found at a palaeontological site at the West Coast Fossil Park.
Dr Roger Smith, head of the Karoo palaeontology department at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, said the extremely rare discovery was made in the riverbed of the ancient Berg River.
The fossils date from an era about five million years ago when the sea was about 1.5 km from the fossil find.
Three weeks ago during excavations by Smith and his team, they came across a fossil of an ancient giraffe (Sivathere) entangled with a whale.
Other giraffe fossils were also found. The giraffe fossils and whale fossil were "buried" in the same place at the same time.
Rhasieda Bester who lives in the area, found the whale fossil when she helped with the excavations at the fossil park.
Whales could not have swum so far upriver, but a strong wind might have driven the carcass from the sea up to the river mouth.
Smith believes a flood might have swept away the large herd of giraffe, nearly a hundred in all, when the herd went to drink water.
They were washed downstream and into a pool where they got stuck in the sand.