Browsing by Author "van Dijk, D. E."
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Item African fossil Lissamphibia(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1995) van Dijk, D. E.The Anura (Frogs and Toads) are represented in Africa and associated regions by fossils of every epoch from the Cretaceous to the Holocene. Pipid frogs of African affinity are known from the Early Cretaceous of Israel and Later Cretaceous of South America and Africa; those of Israel and South America have been well-studied, but only one from Africa has been: Eoxenopoides reuningi from Namaqualand. Two well-studied Palaeocene frogs of South America, Shelania pascuali and Xenopus romeri, have affinities with the African pipids. Apart from a Miocene assemblage from North Africa (including pipids, which are now exclusively sub-Saharan) and one species from Namibia, Xenopus stromeri, the fossil African anurans remain largely unstudied. Deposits in which the African anuran fossils occur represent crater lakes, other lacustrine deposits, including lacustrine tuffs, river terraces, deltas, estuarine/lagoon zones, karst landscapes and archaeological sites; data are not available for several of the recorded fossils. No fossils in Africa appear to have been definitely ascribed to the Urodela or Caecilia.Item Insect faunas of South Africa from the upper permian and the Permian/Triassic boundary(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1997) van Dijk, D. E.Those sites in South Africa where more than one insect fossil specimen has been found have been interpreted as younger than Middle Triassic or as Late Permian. One site which has yielded a number of specimens and is apparently near the Permian/Triassic boundary is a quarry in the town of Bulwer KwaZulu-Natai. There are six sites with more than one insect specimen which are stratigraphically lower than Bulwer, namely Escourt (a new site), Far End, Mooi River (National Road), Mount West, Balgowan and Lidgetton. According to the 1984 1: 1 000 000 Geological Map of South em Africa Bulwer is situated in the Tarkastad Subgroup of the Beaufort Group near its lower boundary; the Tarkastad has been considered as Triassic. The remaining sites, except Balgowan and Lidgetton, fall in the Estcourt Formation of the Beaufort Group, as do all the sites with single Late Permian specimens except for one similarly aged specimen from the more easterly Emakwezeni Formation. The stratigraphically lowest sites are Lidgetton and slightly younger Balgowan; both are mapped as VoIksrust Formation of the Ecca Group. An analysis is made of vertical distribution of taxa, with those of Lidgetton and Balgowan grouped together as a lower unit, of Bulwer as upper unit, and of the Estcourt Formation sites and Emakwezini site as a middle unit. No obvious break between the three units has been noted.Item Palaeozoic insects of southern Africa: a review(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2002) Geertsema, H.; van Dijk, D. E.; van den Heever, J. A.Although a substantial number of Triassic insect fossils have been discovered in southern Africa, relatively few insect fossils are known from the Permian deposits of this region. Fossil insects from the Permian period elsewhere, including the extensive entomological fauna from Eastern Europe (including Russia), Brazil and Australia is well-documented. The Irati Formation in the Parana Basin of Brazil, the temporal and lithological correlate of the Permian Whitehill Formation of South Africa, has yielded fossil insects belonging to Homoptera, N europtera, Coleoptera and Mecoptera. Fossil insects from the Whitehill Formation are usually poorly preserved and only seven specimens are mentioned in the literature. An overview is given of the more recent discoveries of Permian fossil insects in South Africa. This includes the discovery of the oldest beetle in Africa, the oldest longhorned grasshopper in the Southern Hemisphere and a survey of the Permian insects from the Beaufort Group of Natal. Reasons for the paucity of Permian insects are briefly discussed.Item Permian trace fossils attributed to tetrapods (Tierberg Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa)(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2002) van Dijk, D. E.; Channing, A.; van den Heever, J. A.The discovery of a paving slab with a number of prints suggestive of footprints of tetrapods led to a reinvestigation of a trace fossil, known from three localities, of which only two photographs had been published, each with only four prints. The slab was traced to a previously unrecorded site, De Puts, near Calvinia, located in the Tierberg Formation of the Ecca Group of the Karoo Supergroup. The prints from all the sites are referred to Broomichnium permianum Kuhn 1958, of which Quadrispinichna parvia of Anderson 1974 is a synonym.Item Trackways in the Stormberg(Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 1978) van Dijk, D. E.Vertebrate trackways in the lower groups of the Karoo Supergroup are mainly pre- Beaufort fish trails, although some tetrapod trackways are known (Griffiths, 1963, p. 292; plate I; specimens in the South African Museum). Recently fish trails have been discovered in the Beaufort, for instance at Kilburn and Wagondrift, but the Beaufort, despite its rich amphibian, reptilian and synapsid fauna, is remarkable for the paucity of its vertebrate trackways. Of the Stormberg (of Lesotho) it was early noted "Fossils are comparatively rare, but reptile tracks are fairly abundant"