Volume 36 2000

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/15939

Browse

Filters

20002

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Namibia

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Superior cervical vertebrae of a Miocene hominoid and a Plio-Pleistocene hominid from southern Africa
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Gommery, Dominique
    The Miocene hominoid and Plio-Pleistocene hominid vertebral record is poor. In 1994, a complete atlas of a hominoid was found in breccia at Berg Aukas in Namibia. Its age was estimated to be middle Miocene (13 myr) on the basis of microfauna. This locality yielded the holotype of Otavipithecus namibiensis and the atlas could belong to the same genus. The specimen exhibits clear hominoid traits such as a weakly salient retroglenoid tubercle at the superior articular facet of the lateral mass, and a horizontal transverse process. This morphology of the transverse process is close to that of pygmy chimpanzees, gibbons and African colobines, suggesting that Otavipithecus was arboreal. This confirms the conclusions drawn from other parts of the skeleton. From the size of the atlas, a body weight of 15-20 kg is estimated for the Berg Aukas hominoid, which accords with previous estimates based on its teeth. The second fossil considered in this paper is an axis from Swartkrans, SK 854, dated to nearly 1,8 myr. This axis is compared with another Plio-Pleistocene axis from Ethiopia, AL 333.101. SK 854 shows a morphology different from that of humans and AL 333.101, and also of apes. The South African axis was attributed to Paranthropus by Robinson (1972), and its morphology is probably typical of bipedalism associated with climbing.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Neogene rhinoceroses of Namibia
    (Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, 2000) Guerin, Claude
    Since 1991 the Namibia Palaeontology Expedition has excavated four Miocene sites in the Sperrgebiet, three of which (Arrisdrift, Fiskus and Auchas Mine) are new. Only the material from Arrisdrift and a single bone from Langental are specifically determinable. All but one of the 81 rhinocerotid fossils from Arrisdrift constitute a homogeneous sample pertaining to a very large species of cursorial rhino. The exception is an isolated magnum which suggests a small to medium-sized short legged form, perhaps Chilotheridium pattersoni. A magnum from Langental probably represents Brachypotherium heinzelini. The large form from Arrisdrift seems to be the largest of the Miocene African Rhinos; the size and proportions of the metapodials and the other limb bones suggest an analogy with Diceros gr. pachygnathus-neumayri of the Upper Miocene of the Near East; the type of construction of the upper cheek teeth, namely die fourth premolar, is of Dicerotine type and presents, as do the dimensions, close resemblances with Diceros douariensis of the Upper Miocene of North Africa and Italy; the mandible shows analogies with the Dicerotines, especially the apparently short symphysis. This Rhino is Diceros australis nov. sp., so far the oldest known species of the subfamily.