Pre-dinosaur fossil that proved continental drift theory at Maropeng

January 3, 2011

Bianca Bothma

The skull of Lystrosaurus primitivus, a mammal-like reptile, which lived about 200-million years ago, is currently on display at Maropeng as part of the Treasures of our Past fossil display.

The discovery of this fossil, along with other specimens of Lystrosaurus, was instrumental in providing the scientific proof needed to validate the theory of continental drift.

In 1912, German scientist Alfred Wegener officially proposed a theory of continental drift. Wegener put forward that the Earth’s continents were once joined in a large land mass and drifted apart over time.

He reportedly first thought of the idea when he noticed that the Earth’s continents fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle.

This idea was largely rejected by the scientific community at the time due to a lack of concrete evidence to prove the theory.

Wegener’s theory of continental drift was only accepted posthumously in the 1950s, after the discovery of various Lystrosaurus fossils in Antarctica and southern Africa were made, proving that the two land masses were once joined.

The Treasures of our Past fossil display, which opened at Maropeng at the beginning of December, features specimens from the Bernard Price Institute (BPI) and the Institute for Human Evolution (IHE), both based at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. These two institutes are at the forefront of research in the field of palaeosciences in Africa.

Professor James Kitching, the world-renowned fossil hunter, became the first staff member at the BPI in 1945 when he was mandated to collect fossils from the Karoo.

Three years later, in 1948, Kitching discovered the pre-dinosaur, Lystrosaurus primitivus, near Nieu-Bethesda in the Eastern Cape.

Lystrosaurus primitivus is a type of Dicynodont therapsid, which is a mammal-like reptile that lived in the late Permian and early Triassic periods between 290-million and 208-million years ago.

This was long before the existence of Triassic-era dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex and Brontosaurus, which have been made popular in the media and movies.

At the opening of the fossil display at Maropeng, IHE Director Professor Francis Thackeray explained that “Science is a process of learning”, as he elaborated on how the progression of technology allowed scientists to discover new things about fossils that were found decades ago.

Lystrosaurus primitivus lived a very hippo-like life, eating plants and living in boggy marshlands, making it difficult to believe that the Karoo and the icy mountains of Antarctica were once, when they were still joined, covered with lush forest and marsh-like vegetation.

Visit Maropeng and the Cradle of Humankind this summer to view the skull of Lystrosaurus primitivus, as well as many other interesting fossils, which provide clues about how life on Earth existed millions of years ago.

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