Eastern Cape dinosaur discovery

[Gordon_R]

Interesting profile about the discovery and excavation of a rich dinosaur fossil site in the Eastern Cape: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46511196

This is the story of how a shepherd, a geography teacher and a pensioner helped unearth one of South Africa's biggest discoveries of dinosaur bones.

A team of palaeontologists from various universities including Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand [Wits], the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham in the UK and Switzerland's University of Zurich spent weeks here earlier this year, excavating some of the fossils.

The site, in a barren landscape stripped clean of vegetation, is thought to stretch over a 20km radius (12 miles).

It is believed to be filled with hundreds of fossils from at least 12 different species of the plant-eating sauropodomorph dinosaurs.

 

[Shellyb1]

Read about this a few months back but little to no details released back then. Hope this builds up to be a great tourist attraction and a boost for the EC economy.

 

[Gordon_R]

Read about this a few months back but little to no details released back then. Hope this builds up to be a great tourist attraction and a boost for the EC economy.

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately Qhemega is very remote, close to the border between Lesotho and the Free State. The closest town is Sterkspruit, which most people have never heard of!

Even a relatively convenient location such as the Langebaanweg Fossil Park attracts limited visitors. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Fossil_Park

Edit: A few seconds of raw video footage posted by Dispatch Live a few months ago: