Proceedings of the 19th Biennial Conference of the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa, Stellenbosch, 5–9 July 2016 Table of Contents · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 31 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 32 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 34 Rogers, R. Twenty years of palaeontological adventure and discovery on the Great Red Island, Madagascar · · · · · · · · · · · · · 34 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 35 Benson, R., Day, M.O., Rubidge, B., Butler, R., Carrano, M., Alroy, J. Tetrapod diversification and sampling in the Karoo Basin, and the world · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 35 Fernandez, V. Synchrotron radiation-based science · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 36 Roberts, E.M., Broderick, T., Munyikwa, D., O’Connor, P., Carrano, M., Dirks, P., Jinnah, Z., Stevens, N., Owusu Agyemang, P. Revisiting Jurassic–Cretaceous fossil localities in the Mana Pools Basin and Mid-Zambezi Rift, Zimbabwe: new discoveries and sedimentological and taphonomic insights · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 37 Rogers, K.C. Tiny titanosaurs: primary growth and early ontogeny in a very young sauropod from Madagascar · · · · · · · · · · · 38 Farke, A.A. Digital palaeontology for outreach and education: moving from promise to practice · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 39 Braga, J., Thackeray, J.F. The Kromdraai Research Project: new discoveries · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 40 Dirks, P. About the landscape, caves and fossils in the Cradle of Humankind; what determines their presence · · · · · · · · · · · · 41 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 42 Abrahams, M., Bordy, E.M., Sciscio, L., Knoll, F. Tridactyl dinosaur trackways in the Lower Jurassic upper Elliot Formation near Lephoto village (Roma, Maseru District, Lesotho) · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 42 Anderson, H.M. Generic and specific concepts in Molteno and Gondwana palaeobotany · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 42 Anderson, J.M. Biodiversity and extinction · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 42 Angst, D., Chinsamy, A., Steel, L., Hume, J. Life history insights of the dodo from bone histology · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 43 Araújo, R., Fernandez, V., Polcyn, M.J., Fröbisch, J., Martins, R.M.S. The neuroanatomy, braincase and occiput in Gorgonopsia revealed by synchrotron microtomography · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 43 Bamford, M.K. The diversity of conifer woods from the Early Cretaceous Kirkwood Formation and palaeoenvironmental implications · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 44 Barbolini, N., Bamford, M.K., Rubidge, B.S. Glacial barriers to floral migration in the Permo-Carboniferous of Gondwana· · · 44 Beaudet, A., Dumoncel, J., de Beer, F., Durrleman, S., Gilissen, E., Oettlé, A., Subsol, G., Thackeray, F., Braga, J. Early hominin brain evolution: extracting palaeoneurological evidence from the fossil record · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 45 Benoit, J., Norton, L.A. A reappraisal of the capacity to envenom the bite in Euchambersia (Therocephalia, Therapsida) using µCT scanning · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 45 Bergh, E.W., Compton, J.S. Stratigraphy and depositional environment of Namibian continental shelf sediments as indicated by fossil foraminifera · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 46 Bergh, E.W., Naran, D., Taylor, W. The role of museums in palaeontological education · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 46 Bordy, E.M., Sciscio, L., Reid, M., Abrahams, M. A new theropod dinosaur footprint site in the Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation (Mafube, eastern Free State, South Africa): footprint preservation in a semi-arid fluvio-lacustrine setting · · · · 47 Botha-Brink, J., Huttenlocker, A. K., Smith, R. M. H., Prevec, R., Modesto, S.P., Viglietti, P. New data on the Permo- Triassic Boundary from the Karoo Basin of South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 47 Bowen, D., van der Linde, C., Dinis, Y., Muir, R.A., Bordy, E.M. Palaeoenvironment, stratigraphy and evolution of Mesozoic rift basins, onshore Outeniqua Basin, Western and Eastern Cape, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 48 Browning, C., Gabbott, S., Zalasiewicz, J., Theron, J. A record of sedimentation of the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Member (Cedarberg Formation) from new borehole data in the Cedarberg region of South Africa · · · · · · · · · 48 Butler, E., Botha-Brink, J., Abdala, N.F. A new gorgonopsian from the uppermost Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone, Karoo Basin of South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 49 Canoville, A., Chinsamy, A. Palaeobiological implications of the bone microstructure of pareiasaurs (Parareptilia) from the Karoo Basin, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 49 Palaeontologia africana 51: 27–85 — ISSN 2410-4418 [Palaeontol. afr.] Online only Permanently archived on the 30th of April 2017 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. This item is permanently archived at: http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/22433 ©2017 Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand. This is an open-access article published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This item is permanently archived at: http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/ handle/10539/22433/ Canoville, A., de Buffrénil, V., Laurin, M. Microanatomical diversity of amniote ribs · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 49 Cazenave, M., Braga, J., de Beer, F., Hoffman, J.W., Macchiarelli, M., Oettlé, A., Thackeray, J.F. Cancellous network patterning and cortical bone distribution at the proximal femoral end in P. robustus · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 50 Chapelle, K., Choiniere, J.N. Three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the cranial ontogeny of Massospondylus carinatus based on CT reconstructions · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 50 Chinsamy, A., Cerda I., Powell, J. Vascularized, endosteal bone tissue in saltasaurine titanosaurs from Argentina · · · · · · · · · 51 Choiniere, J.N., Chapelle, K.E.J., Brusatte, S.L., Hendrickx, C., Norell, M.A. CT-based reconstruction of the skull of the basal maniraptoran Ornitholestes hermanni Osborn 1903 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 51 Clayton, K.E., McPhee, B.W., Penn-Clarke, C., Choiniere, J.N., Jinnah, Z. Trace and body fossils of the Triassic- Jurassic Elliot and Clarens formations in the Lebombo–Tshipise Basin, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 52 Cohen, B.F. Archaeological methods and practice: a multidisciplinary approach · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 52 Couzens, R. A. Spatial modelling, formation and transformation of the Oldowan lithic artefact assemblages from Sterk- fontein caves, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 52 Day, M. O., Rubidge, B.S., Abdala, F. A new burnetiamorph therapsid from the Pristerognathus AZ of South Africa and a proposed solution to their stratigraphic incongruence · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 53 Dinter, C.M., Benson, R.B.J., McPhee, B.W., Choiniere, J.N. New associated basal sauropodomorph material from the Late Triassic lower Elliot Formation, Karoo Basin, Eastern Cape · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 53 Dollman, K.N., Choiniere, J.N. A study on the cranial anatomy of Lower Jurassic crocodylomorphs Protosuchus haughtoni and Litargosuchus leptorhynchus using 3D digital models · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 54 Duhamel, A., Rubidge, B.S., Benoit, J., Day, M. New burnetiid specimens add to understanding of Biarmosuchian taxonomy and ontogeny · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 54 du Plessis A., le Roux, S.G. X-ray CT scanning at Stellenbosch University: palaeontological applications · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 54 Durugbo, E.U., Olayiwola, M.A., Yussuph, W.I., Bankole, S. I., Oyelami, A. Biostratigraphic and sequence analysis of Well H1, from the central Niger Delta, Nigeria · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 55 Engelbrecht, M., Steininger C., Val A., Kibii J.M. Taxonomic and taphonomic analyses of fossil fauna from a new deposit in Gondolin · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 55 Galimberti, M., Wiltshire N. A reflection on the use of palaeosensitivity maps in heritage resources management · · · · · · · · · 56 Gess, R.W. Estuarine fish breeding grounds: a tale of two times · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 56 Gess, R.W., Harris, C. Environmental and depositional setting of a low diversity lingulid brachiopod assemblage from the Witpoort Formation (Witteberg Group, Cape Supergroup) east of Grahamstown · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 56 Govender, R., Avery, G., Chinsamy-Turan, A. Marine and terrestrial carnivore damage on Mio-Pliocene marine mammals from the west coast of South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 57 Groenewald., G. Palaeontological Impact Assessments – opportunities for exploring new fossil sites· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 57 Groenewald, D.P., Rubidge, B.S., Day, M.O. Preliminary findings: litho- and biostratigraphic analysis of the Lower Beaufort Group, Karoo Supergroup, in the central Free State Province, South Africa, and implications for the depositional history of a distal bulge · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 57 Haarhoff, P.J. West Coast Fossil Park – past, present and future · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 58 Hancox, P.J. The vertebrate fauna from the lower Burgersdorp Formation (Cynognathus Assemblage Zone – Langbergia subzone) of South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 58 Harrison, B., Bordy, E.M., Taylor, W.L., Högström, A. Investigating the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary in the Vanrhyns- dorp Group, South Africa, and the Vestertana Group of Finnmark, northern Norway · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 59 Haupt, T., Mapekula, L., Bordy, E.M., Sciscio, L. Sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological assessments across the upper Elliot and lowermost Clarens formations, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 59 Hilbert-Wolf, H.L., Roberts, E.M., Mtelela, C., O’Connor, P.M., Stevens, N. Geochronological and stratigraphic correlations of new late Oligocene and late Miocene–Pliocene vertebrate-bearing successions in the Rukwa Rift Basin · · 60 Iqbal, S., Carlson, K. J., Abdala, F., Fernandez, V. The functional morphology of the Early Triassic non-mammaliaform cynodont Thrinaxodon liorhinus forelimb · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 60 Jakata, K. CT scanning of fossils at the Evolutionary Studies Institute · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 61 Jirah, S., Rubidge, B.S., Abdala, N.F. Middle Permian diversity of large herbivores: taxonomic revision of the Titano- suchidae (Therapsida, Dinocephalia) of the Karoo Basin, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 61 Kock, S. Tree growth rings as a palaeoclimate proxy for the Karoo Basin · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 61 Kruger, A., Randolph-Quinney, P., Elliott, M. Spatial taphonomic reconstruction of the Dinaledi Chamber, Rising Star Cave, by the use of high resolution three-dimensional data collection · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 62 Krummeck, D.W., Bordy, E.M. Update on the digital library of ichnofossils in the Karoo Supergroup, South Africa · · · · · · · · · 62 Krupandan, E., Chinsamy, A. The long bone histology of Antetonitrus ingenipes: basal sauropoda and the evolution of the sauropod-type growth strategy · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 62 Lavin, J., Thomas, G. Proposed new Palaeontological Guidelines for the Western Cape · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 63 Legendre, L.J., Guénard, G., Botha-Brink, J., Cubo, J. Palaeohistological evidence for ancestral high metabolic rate in archosaurs · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 63 Lennox, S.J. Charcoal analysis from 58 and 49 000-year-old hearths at Sibudu: Implications for wood uses and the KwaZulu-Natal environment during the Middle Stone Age · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 64 28 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Mahabeer, K., Barbolini, N., Bamford, M.K. Palynology of the Permian Mucanha-Vuzi Coal Basin (Ecca Group, Karoo Supergroup), Tete Province, Mozambique · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 64 Mckay, I.J. What is happening in palaeosciences outreach and education in South Africa in 2016? · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 64 Mann, N.J., Stynder D.D. Using phytolith evidence to reconstruct the Middle Pleistocene vegetation community along the southwest coast of South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 65 Master, S. Alexander Logie du Toit’s drawings of Alfred ‘Gogga’ Brown’s collection of Stormberg plant fossils, and notes on the localities of several important vertebrate fossil holotypes from the Eastern Cape · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 65 Master, S. New historical information on the first vertebrate fossil discoveries from Lesotho in 1867, including the type locality of the cynodont therapsid Tritylodon longaevus · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 66 Master, S., Bordy, E.M. A new fossil termite nest from the uppermost Clarens Formation at Pafuri River camp, Venda, Limpopo Province, South Africa – Comparison with other occurrences in southern Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 66 Matiwane, A., Prevec, R. Investigations of a Glossopteris flora near Sutherland: a new approach embracing morpho- metric and ecological aspects · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 67 Matthews, T., Measey, G. J. Palaeoclimatic implications of frog taxa from South African fossil sites · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 67 McPhee, B.W., Choiniere, J.N., Sciscio, L., Bordy, E.M. The largest dinosaur in the Karoo: what the Highland Giant is and is not · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 67 Montoya-Sanhueza, G., Chinsamy, A. Bone microstructure of two highly specialized subterranean rodents: Bathyergus suillus and Heterocephalus glaber (Bathyergidae) · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 68 Montoya-Sanhueza, G., Chinsamy, A., La Grange, L., Stynder, D. Hindlimb histology of the specialized climber, Procavia capensis (Hyracoidea; Paenungulata) · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 68 Mtelela, C., Roberts, E.M., Hilbert-Wolf, H., Stevens, N., O’Connor, P. Stratigraphy, palaeontology and continental ichnology of the late Cenozoic Lake Beds Successions, Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 69 Mudau, M.A.M., Mckay, I. J. Producing a glossary to explain palaeontological terms in indigenous South African languages for palaeoscientists, outreach officers, teachers and learners · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 69 Muir, R., Bordy, E.M. Stratigraphic framework of the Kirkwood Formation in the southern Cape region, South Africa: invertebrate-based biostratigraphy and zircon geochronology · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 70 Neumann, F.H., Cawthra, H.C., Carr, A.S., Scott, L., Durugbo, E., Humphries, M.S., Cowling, R., Bamford,M.K., Musekiwa, C., MacHutchon, M. Palaeoenvironmental fluctuations during a terminal Oligocene–early Miocene transgression at the southwestern tip of Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 70 Ngoloyi, N., Braga, J., Fourvel, J.B., Lans, B. The use of GIS and multi-scalar analysis tools to reconstruct the geomorphol- ogy of the fossil hominin sites and, to facilitate the understanding and interpretation of fossil hominin taphonomy in Kromdraai and the Cradle of Humankind · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 71 Norton, L.A., Abdala, F., Rubidge, B.S., Botha-Brink, J. Comparison of tooth replacement patterns of the Permo-Trias- sic epicynodonts Cynosaurus and Galesaurs · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 71 Parkinson, A.H. New ichnotaxa from Cooper’s D, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 72 Penn-Clarke, C.R., Rubidge, B.S., Jinnah, Z.A. The rise and fall of the Malvinokaffric Realm in South Africa: insights from palaeoenvironmental, biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic data · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 72 Phillips, C.A., Harris, J.W.K., Bamford, M.K. The palaeoenvironment (c. 1.6 Ma) of FxJj20 complex, Koobi Fora, Kenya, using phytoliths · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 73 Pickering, R. Frequency and duration of U-Pb dated flowstone growth intervals in South African early hominin caves reflect Early Pleistocene climate variability · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 73 Prevec, R. Rigbya revisited: a large new collection from KwaZulu-Natal confirms glossopterid affinities and associated Glossopteris leaf morphotype · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 73 Rammutla, R.T., Rubidge, B.S., Day, M.O. Lithology and palaeontology of the Ecca–Beaufort contact in the northern Karoo Basin · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 74 Redelstorff, R., Hine, P. New ‘Guidelines for Palaeontological Permitting Policy’ by SAHRA: what are the improvements? · · · 74 Reid, M., Bordy, E.M., Taylor W.L. Exploring an ophiuroid–stylophoran assemblage from the Devonian Voorstehoek Forma- tion, Bokkeveld Group, Western Cape: taphonomy, palaeoecology and taxonomy · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 75 Rey,K.,Amiot,R.,Fourel,F.,Abdala,F.,Fluteau,F.,Jalil N-E.,Liu,J., Rubidge,B.S.,Smith,R.M.H.,Steyer.J-S.,Viglietti, P.A., Wang, X., Lécuyer, C. Oxygen isotopes suggest elevated thermometabolism within multiple Permo-Triassic therapsid clades · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 75 Ritzman, T., Schoville, B. Seasonal exploitation of coastal resources in the Middle and Later Stone Age of southern Africa from comparative Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) assemblages · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 76 Rogers, R., Curry Rogers, K., Carrano, M. Isotaphonomy in concept and practice: an exploration of vertebrate micro- fossil bonebeds in the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Judith River Formation, North-Central Montana · · · · · 76 Rubidge, B.S., Day, M.O. The Middle Abrahamskraal Formation and the mystery of the Eodicynodon–Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone transition · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 77 Sciscio, L., Bordy, E.M., McPhee, B.W., Choiniere, J.N. The first vertebrate burrow from the upper Elliot Formation (Early Jurassic), main Karoo Basin · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 77 Shelton, C., Chinsamy, A. Histovariability revealed in anteosaurid (Therapsida: Dinocephalia) limb bones · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 78 Singh, M., Barbolini, N. Preliminary report on the palynology of the Permian Mid-Zambezi Basin of Zambia · · · · · · · · · · · · · 78 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 29 Smith, R.M.H., Sidor, C.A., Angielczyk, K.D., Nesbitt, S., Tabor, N. Taphonomy and sedimentary environments of mid-Triassic vertebrate accumulations, Lifua Member (Manda beds), Ruhuhu Basin, Tanzania · · · · · · · · · · · · 78 Staunton, C.K., Choiniere, J.N. The evolution of forelimb architecture in early sauropodomorphs · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 79 Stratford, D. Increasing stratigraphic resolution within the Australopithecus-bearing Member 4 deposit, Sterkfontein · · · · · · · · 79 Stynder, D. An analysis of gross dental wear and dental breakage patterns to determine the dietary ecology of large- bodied carnivores from Langebaanweg ‘E’ Quarry · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 80 Stynder D.D., Donohue, S.L., DeSantis, L.R.G., Schubert, B.W., Ungar, P.S. Dental microwear texture analysis of the early Pliocene African bear Agriotherium africanum· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 80 Tawane, G. M. Use of media platforms as tools to initiate community engagement · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 80 Thackeray, J.F. Hominin evolution: sigma taxonomy in relation to palaeoanthropology and the lack of clear boundaries between species · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 81 Van den Brandt, M. J., Rubidge, B. S., Abdala, N.F. Cranial morphology of Embrithosaurus schwarzi (Parareptilia, Pareiasauria), and a taxonomic and stratigraphic reassessment of the South Africa Middle Permian pareiasaurs · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 81 Van Dijk, E. Biogeography antecedes plate tectonics · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 82 Venter, C., Steininger, C., Stratford, D. Palaeoenvironmental analysis of Plio-Pleistocene cave deposits from the Cradle of Humankind using stable light isotope analysis of speleothems · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 82 Viglietti, P.A., Rubidge, B.S., Smith, R.M.H. A new litho- and biostratigraphic framework for the latest Permian (Balfour and Teekloof formations) Karoo Basin of South Africa: implications for basin development · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 82 Von Der Meden, J., Pickering, R. The micromorphology and U-Pb dating of Elandsfontein carbonates: implications for the mid-Pleistocene hominin occupation and the palaeoenvironment · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 83 Welman, J., James, F.C. Phylogenetic analysis based on braincases of early theropods, coelurosaurs, birds and maniraptorans · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 83 Wentzel, W.A. Bringing fossils back to life at the Fossil Park through our education programmes · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 83 Wiersma, J., Irmis, R. The biogeography of Late Cretaceous ankylosaurid dinosaurs: implications for ankylosaurid diver- sity in Western North America · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 84 Zanolli, C., Braga, J., de Beer, F., Hoffman, J.W., Macchiarelli, R., Thackeray, F. Australopith- or Homo-like? Investigating the taxonomic status of SK 27 (Swartkrans, South Africa) through its inner tooth structural signature · · · · · · · 84 Zipfel B. Fossil hominin collections of the University of the Witwatersrand: composition, curation and access · · · · · · · · · · · · · 85 30 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 19th Biennial Conference of the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa Stellenbosch, 5–9 July 2016 Organizers and acknowledgements Major funding was provided by: NRF-KIC: National Science Foundation Knowledge Interchange and Collaboration funding and PAST: the Palaeontological Scientific Trust of Southern Africa. Financial support was provided by: Stellenbosch University, The Department of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University, the Western Cape Gravel Monkeys with the Department of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University, the Western Cape Branch of the Geological Society of South Africa, the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Editors: Bordy, E.M., Viglietti, P., Carlson, K., Rubidge, B.S., Bamford, M.K., Smith, R.M.H., Botha-Brink, J., Abdala, N.F., Choiniere, J.N., Roberts, E.M., Dirks, P., Jinnah, Z., Chapelle, K.E.J., Prevec, R., Tucker, R.T., Shelton, C., Farke, A.A., McKay, I., Stratford, D., Braga, J. Organizing Committee Chairs: Tucker, R.T., Choiniere, J.N., Chapelle, K.E.J., Jinnah, Z., Roberts, E.M. & Bamford, M.K. Special Thanks go to: Choiniere, J.N., Bamford, M.K., Rubidge, B.S., Roberts, E.M., Jinnah, Z., Chapelle, K.E.J. and Prevec, R., for their continued support throughout the past two years during the preparation of this meeting. Furthermore, thanks go to the M.Sc. students of the Western Cape Gravel Monkeys at Stellenbosch University including: Walters, S., Rademen, Z., Jonk, L., along with many others for volun- teering throughout the PSSA 2016 event. We also wish to thank Triggerfish Brewery, Camberley Wines, Twaalf, Nooitgedacht Wine Farms, Darling Brewery, Stellenbrau and Blitz Braais for hosting our events. The logo of the PSSA 2016 Conference and other sketches depict the integrations of the Western Cape Winelands and the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa. All drafts were the production of palaeoartist Dr Owen Li of Petrified Pencils, NSW, Australia. ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 31 Programme Monday July 4 Ice Breaker & Registration Triggerfish Brewery (Somerset West) Begins at 5:30 pm Tuesday, July 5 7:45 am Prestart coffee 8:15 am Opening Remarks: Deputy Vice Chancellor Research Prof. Eugene Cloete Symposium: New Approaches to Biostratigraphy in the Karoo Basin 8:45 am Plenary Talk: Dr Roger Benson 9:15 am Rubidge, B.S. 9:30 am Day, M.O. 9:45 am Viglietti, P.A. 10:00 am Jirah, S. 10:15 am Groenewald, G. Tea 10:30–11:00 am 11:00 am Van den Brandt, M.J. 11:15 am Butler, R. 11:30 am Hancox, P.J. 11:45 am Muir, R. Lunch 12:00–1:00 pm 1:00 pm Iqbal, S. 1:15 pm Master, S. 1:30 pm Norton, L.A. 1:45 pm Welman, J. 2:00 pm McPhee, B.W. 2:15 pm Dinter, C.M. Tea 2:30–3:00 pm 3:00 pm Wiersma, J. 3:15 pm Plenary Talk: Dr Vincent Fernandez 3:45 pm Du Plessis A. 4:00 pm Jakata, K. 4:15 pm Reid, M. 4:30 pm Araújo, R. 4:45 pm Benoit, J. 5:00 pm Dollman, K.N. 5:15 pm Staunton, C.K. 5:30 pm Chapelle, K.E.J. 5:45 pm Choiniere, J.N. – 6.45 pm Bowen, D. Canoville, A. Duhamel, A. Durugbo, E.U. Engelbrecht, M. Galimberti, M. Gess, R.W. Haupt, T. Master, S. Montoya-Sanhueza G. Rammutla, R.T. Singh, M. Stynder, D. Thackeray, J.F. Von Der Meden, J. Zanolli, C. Wednesday, July 6 7:45 am Prestart coffee 8:30 am Opening 8:45 am Plenary Talk: Dr Eric Roberts 9:15 am Rogers, R. 9:30 am Sciscio, L. 9:45 am Hilbert-Wolf, H.L. 10:00 am Smith, R.M.H. 10:15 am Bordy, E.M. Tea 10:30–11:00 am 11:00 am Mtelela, C. 11:15 am Abrahams, M. 11:30 am Bergh, E.W. 11:45 am Penn-Clarke, C. Lunch 12:00–1:00 pm 1:00 pm Browning, C. 1:15 pm Clayton, K.E. 1:30 pm Plenary Talk: Dr Paul Dirks 1:45 pm Couzens, R.A. 2:00 pm Venter, C. 2:15 pm Pickering, R. Tea 2:30–3:00 pm 3:00 pm Kruger, A. 3:15 pm Parkinson, A.H. 3:30 pm van Dijk, E. 3:45 pm Bamford, M.K. 4:00 pm Botha-Brink, J. 4:15 pm Matiwane, A. 4:30 pm Prevec, R. 5:00 pm Anderson, H.M. 5:15 pm Master, S. 5:30 pm Mahabeer, K. 5:45 pm Barbolini, N. Conference Keynote Address 6:45 pm Prof. Raymond Rogers 32 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Thursday, July 7 7:45 am Prestart coffee 8:30 am Opening 8:45 am Plenary Talk: Dr Jose Braga 9:15 am Stratford, D. 9:45 am Ngoloyi, N. 10:00 am Zipfel, B. 10:15 am Cazenave, M. Tea 10:30–11:00 am 11:00 am Phillips, C.A. 11:15 am Lennox, S.J. 11:30 am Ritzman, T. 11:45 am Krummeck, D.W. Lunch 12:00–1:00 pm Symposium: Palaeosciences, Education, and Outreach 1:00 pm Plenary Talk: Dr Andrew Farke 1:30 pm McKay, I.J. 1:45 pm Tawane, G.M. 2:00 pm Bergh, E.W. 2:15 pm Haarhoff, P.J. Tea 2:30–3:00 pm 3:00 pm Mudau, M.A.M. 3:15 pm Wentzel, W.A. 3:30 pm Anderson, H.M. 3:45 pm Gess, R.W. 4:00 pm Matthews, T. 4:15 pm Harrison, B. 4:30 pm Stynder, D.D. 4:45 pm Mann, N.J. 5:00 pm Govender, R. 5:15 pm Neumann, F.H. 5:30 pm Cohen, B.F. Friday, July 8 7:45 am Prestart coffee 8:15 am Opening Centre of Excellence, Palaeosciences Program Director Dr Christine Steininger 8:45 am Plenary Talk: Dr Kristina Curry Rogers 9:15 am Canoville, A. 9:30 am Shelton, C. 9:45 am Legendre, L.J. 10:00 am Krupandan, E. 10:15 am Chinsamy, A. Tea 10:30–11:00 am 11:00 am Groenewald, G. 11:15 am Angst, D. 11:30 am Montoya-Sanhueza, G. 11:45 am Rey, K. Lunch 12:00–1:00 pm 1:00 pm Lavin, J. 1:15 pm Redelstorff, R. Biennial General Meeting 1:30 pm Prof. Marion Bamford, President’s address End of Conference Awards & Dinner Begins at 6:30 pm Saturday, July 9 Field Trip: Langebaan Fossil Park Begins at 7:00 am ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 33 Keynote Address Twenty years of palaeontological adventure and discovery on the Great Red Island, Madagascar Professor Raymond Rogers Geology Department, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A. Approximately 180 million years ago, the supercontinent Gondwana began to fragment into isolated landmasses. The island of Madagascar was initally positioned in the center of Gond- wana, nestled between mainland Africa and India. But by ~85 million years ago powerful geological forces had left Madagascar isolated, as it is today, in the Indian Ocean. For the past 20 years, over the course of eight eventful expeditions, I have worked as the geologist and taphonomist for the Mahajanga Basin Project (MBP), a multinational, multi-institutional team of researchers devoted to exploring the fossil and rock records of Madagascar. Over the years, the MBP team has documented an amazing menagerie of extinct animals, including fishes, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodyliforms, nonavian dinosaurs, birds, and mammals. In this plenary talk we will explore some of the highlights of the MBP, includ- ing (1) a meat-eating dinosaur that practiced cannibalism (the theropod Majungasaurus), (2) baby dinosaurs, no bigger than a Golden Retriever, that grew to immense adult size (the sauropod Rapetosaurus), (3) pug-nosed, plant-eating crocodiles (Simosuchus), and bizarre little mammals (Vintana). We will also investigate why ancient Cretaceous rocks of Madagas- car yield so many fantastic fossils. Interestingly, the majority of the exquisitely preserved ver- tebrate fossils of Madagascar show evidence of dying during stressful environmental episodes, such as droughts (drought is a major killing agent in Africa to this day). When the rains returned, the dead were entombed within debris flow deposits that shielded animal remains from destructive surface processes and ushered them into the fossil record. Funding acknowledgement: Provided by National Science Foundation (EAR-0446488, EAR-1123642), the National Geographic Society (8597-09), and Macalester College. 34 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Plenary Talk Tetrapod diversification and sampling in the Karoo Basin, and the world Benson, R.1, Day, M.O.2, Rubidge, B.2, Butler, R.3, Carrano, M.4, Alroy, J.5 1Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, U.K. 2Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 3School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, U.K. 4Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, U.S.A.. 5Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia Biostratigraphy is a core application of fossil data, with wide utility across evolutionary biology and the earth sciences. Despite its long history, biostratigraphic research remains a dynamic field of investigation. High-resolution field studies continue to yield insight on the stratigraphic column. Parallel advances in global fossil occurrence databases (https://paleobiodb.org) and quantitative analytical methods are providing significant insights into the timing and causes of faunal turnover in deep time. The Karoo Basin of South Africa has become a model system for terrestrial biostratigraphy, containing thousands of tetrapod specimens, and contributing seminal information on major events in the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems. This includes extinction and recovery around the Middle/Late Permian transition. Preservation of fossil-bearing deposits is uneven in time and space. Furthermore, the available fossil record is unevenly sampled. These factors bias inferences of ancient biodiversity, and of speciation and extinction rates at both global and regional levels. Bias is more pervasive than commonly conceived, and even those studies that attempt to correct them have typically presented continuous, ‘global’ time series of fossil diversity, giving an inflated impression of our knowledge of deep time diversity. Using a near- complete database of Mesozoic–Palaeocene tetrapod occurrences, we show that there is no such thing as the ‘global’ fossil record. Instead, the record comprises patchily distributed regional windows on diversity. This will seem obvious to some palaeontologists, and provides an important message: that statistical analyses of global databases are only useful if they explicitly analyse this patchwork of regions. When analysed as such, the inferred pattern of Mesozoic tetrapod diversity appears relatively static, with low long-term rates of increase. This differs entirely from previous notions of substantial and unbounded diversifi- cation in Mesozoic tetrapods. A key role for high-resolution regional databases should be recognized. In this context, we present analysis of 3500 occurrences of Middle Permian–early Late Permian tetrapod fossils from the Karroo Basin. Sampling-informed measures indicate high extinction rates near the top of the Tapinocephalus AZ. Subsequent recovery was de- layed: the Pristerognathus AZ is a protracted interval of low diversity, with high rates of origi- nation only in its upper part. We anticipate that further documentation and study of the Karoo succession will continue to yield substantial further insights. ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 35 Plenary Talk Synchrotron radiation-based science Fernandez, V. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France Synchrotron has become a more and more popular tool for palaeontological investigation since the advent of the 21st century. A synchrotron is simply a ring-shaped particle accelera- tor generating X-rays, surrounded by experimental hutches in which a variety of studies can be conducted. Most common in palaeontological investigations are the use of X-rays for computed tomography – that is producing 3D images from X-ray slices through a fossil. Although CT methods are available in labs worldwide, the synchrotron beam has distinct advantages, primarily in its intensity. This progressively opens the gate to observing matter in the nano-world at resolutions not previously achievable. With such assets, synchrotrons are optimized for use in a broad variety of applications, whether it is to understand how a material evolves under certain pressure and temperature conditions, or to visualize protein structure at the atomic level. While the European synchrotron was built to facilitate research from scientists of member countries, there has also been a growing interest from African researchers, notably in South Africa that joined the coalition in 2013 as scientific associate. With the growing synchrotron user community from African countries, a Steering Commit- tee was elected at the end of 2015 to initiate the process leading to the construction of the first light source in Africa. By continuing to scan rare and unique fossils, progressively replacing crucial but invasive techniques (such as virtual histology) and keeping on learning other synchrotron techniques to apply them in our domain, African palaeontologists have an important role to play in the prospect to see a synchrotron emerge on their continent. 36 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Plenary Talk Revisiting Jurassic–Cretaceous fossil localities in the Mana Pools Basin and Mid-Zambezi Rift, Zimbabwe: new discoveries and sedimentological and taphonomic insights Roberts, E.M.1, Broderick, T.2, Munyikwa, D.3, O’Connor, P.4, Carrano, M.5, Dirks, P.1, Jinnah, Z.6, Stevens, N.4, Owusu Agyemang, P.1 1James Cook University, Australia 2Harare, Zimbabwe 3National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (Natural History Museum) 4Ohio University, U.S.A. 5Smithsonian Institution, U.S.A. 6University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Three expeditions were conducted between 2007 and 2010 in the Zambezi Valley, which focused on revisiting historic dinosaur fossil localities in the Mana Pools and Mid-Zambezi basins, northern Zimbabwe. In Mana Pools National Park, excavation of a spectacular Early Jurassic bonebed (laterally correlative to the bonebed excavated by M. Raath in the late 1970s) containing associated to partially articulated remains of Syntarsus rhodesiensis was conducted, and a number of other new fossil localities were discovered, including the site of a beautifully preserved partial skeleton of a small prosauropod dinosaur. Most of the jackets containing the dinosaur material have now been prepared (nearly doubling the amount of material known for Syntarsus rhodesiensis), and detailed analysis of the taphonomy and palaeobiology of both sites is underway. Additional exploration was conducted in the Chewore Safari Area, including mapping of a new large sauropod trackway along the Ntumbe River and discovery of abundant partially preserved fish fossils from the Ntumbe beds. Detailed sedimentological, biostratigraphic and provenance investigation of sites from both the Mana Pools and Chewore areas have now been completed, which yield new insights into the age, depositional environments, regional tectonics and palaeofluvial drain- age evolution of the Mid-Zambezi Rift System. An update and summary of these findings will be presented. Funding acknowledgement: We acknowledge the National Geographic Society-CRE and the Jurassic Foundation for supporting this research. We also acknowledge the University of Zimbabwe for their technical support and use of equipment and vehicle rental. James Cook University provided E.M.R. with a small faculty grant to conduct U-Pb detrital zircon geo- chronology. ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 37 Plenary Talk Tiny titanosaurs: primary growth and early ontogeny in a very young sauropod from Madagascar Rogers, K.C. Departments of Geology and Biology, Macalester College, Minnesota, U.S.A. Sauropods began their lives as tiny animals and exhibit an ontogenetic size difference between hatchlings and adults greater than that for any other terrestrial vertebrate. The lack of data for perinatal sauropods hampers our understanding of the strategies that allowed them to achieve such astounding changes in size. Here I describe a very young specimen of Rapetosaurus krausei that represents one of the smallest post-hatching sauropods yet recov- ered. The perinatal specimen is represented by associated elements from the forelimb, hindlimb, pelvic girdle, and vertebral column. Limb element lengths indicate that this very young juvenile stood ~35 cm at the hip, and may have weighed as little as ~25 kg. In spite of its very small body size, limb elements do not exhibit significant differences from later stage juvenile and adult morphology and generally scale isometrically as documented for other sauropod taxa. Bone histological and microCT data indicate that young Rapetosaurus grew very quickly, but that this fast growth coincided with an early onset of bone remodelling that extends into the mid-cortex of all sampled appendicular elements. LAGs and annuli are absent, but an intracortical zonation indicates a post-hatching growth hiatus similar to hatching lines in reptiles and neonatal lines in birds. Rapetosaurus hatching lines provide a lower limit for body size in this titanosaur. Remodelling may be related to a phylogenetic shift in titanosaur growth strategies, to biomechanical loading, to blood calcium homeosta- sis, or to a combination of all three. Epiphyseal regions comprise zones of calcified cartilage perforated by tubes lined with newly formed bone tissue. These zones are thinner than in other perinatal dinosaurs and could indicate relatively slow elongation of limb bones, but is inconsistent with observed rapid appositional growth and frequency of secondary remodel- ling. These data combined with the taphonomy and palaeoenvironmental context of the Maevarano Formation support the hypothesis that Rapetosaurus were nidifugous (precocial), probably not reliant on significant postnatal parental care, and died just a few weeks after hatching as a victim of Late Cretaceous drought stress in ancient Madagascar. 38 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Plenary Talk Digital palaeontology for outreach and education: moving from promise to practice Farke, A.A. Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, CA 91711, U.S.A. Three-dimensional digitization of fossils has moved from a flashy novelty to a standard tool for palaeontological research. In addition to immediate research needs, digitization efforts are often promoted as beneficial for outreach and education, by allowing broader access to specimens in museum collections. Yet, it remains difficult to truly bring fossils to the masses. Despite the increasing variety of digitization methods, it can still be time-consuming and often expensive to model large numbers of specimens. Many important digitized fossils remain unavailable for broader access, variously due to researcher and museum desires to restrict distribution or technological difficulties in archiving and distributing data. Even when digital fossils are accessible, it takes effort to alert the public to their availability as well as to create meaningful educational opportunities around the specimens. Disparities in access to technology affect institutions, researchers, educators and the public alike. If digital fossils are to achieve their full potential as research and educational tools, solutions to all of these problems must be implemented. First and foremost, a culture shift within the scientific community is required to encourage and reward active sharing of digital data. Improve- ments in technological infrastructure, via websites such as MorphoSource, contribute posi- tively to this. For usage in formal and informal education settings, access to technology (or creative work-arounds) is key. Furthermore, continued development of standards-based lesson plans using digital fossils is also necessary. Ongoing work by numerous parties shows considerable promise for expanding use of digital fossils in education and outreach. ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 39 Plenary Talk The Kromdraai Research Project: new discoveries Braga, J.1, Thackeray, J.F.2 1University of Toulouse, CNRS, France 2Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand The Plio-Pleistocene site of Kromdraai (Gauteng, South Africa) is of interest because the dentally and cranially more generalized states shown by some of its 27 hominins recovered until 2014 and not displayed by other southern African congenerics sampled thus far, may lie close to the origin of a putative Paranthropus monophyletic clade close to or before 2.3 Ma. However, current scenarios consider that Paranthropus did not occur in southern Africa prior to 2.0 Ma. Fieldwork undertaken since 2014 by the Kromdraai Research Project (KRP), as well as laboratory work on newly and previously discovered KB fossils, (i) demonstrate the much larger size of the Kromdraai site through the exposure of extensive and until then unex- plored fossiliferous deposits; (ii) recovered as yet (until March 2016) more than 2000 identifi- able macrovertebrate fossils, including 22 new hominins, all from the earliest part of the Kromdraai stratigraphic sequence from Member 1 to Member 3; (iii) established relative chronological relationships between Kromdraai A and B localities; (iv) initiated revised taxonomic, phylogenetic and taphonomic interpretations of the Kromdraai fossils by more precisely taking into account the context of their discovery (i.e. stratigraphic provenience or not), and by using computer-assisted 3D imaging methods and recent advances in 3D morphometry. These exciting new discoveries lead to increasing the timeline of hominins at this site, with the recognition of hominin-bearing sediments lower than Member 3 that might register a continuation from Sterkfontein Member 4 to the succeeding phases repre- sented by Swartkrans Member 1 and Sterkfontein Member 5. Funding acknowledgement: This work is supported by the Institut des Déserts et des Steppes, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CNRS and the NRF. 40 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Plenary Talk About the landscape, caves and fossils in the Cradle of Humankind; what determines their presence Dirks, P. Department of Geosciences, College of Science & Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia Why do fossils end up in caves and why are they preserved? Is the chain of events that led to fossilization simply dependent on chance due to the occasional convergence of suitable circumstance, or is the process more specific, and in part systemic and predictable? The answer to these questions lies not simply in the behavioural patterns of the animals involved, and how they interacted with the landscape. There are also a range of physical processes, climate variability, landscape dynamics, and cave formation, as the most obvious ones, that influenced fossil deposition. In this talk I would like to inspect the relationship between hominid fossil deposits and the caves and landscapes in the Cradle of Humankind (CoH) in which they occur, to determine to what degree the physical environment facilitated fossil formation, preservation and varia- tions therein.Caves in the CoH occur in dolomite, and their formation and exposure is the result of erosion and tectonics. Cosmogenic isotope dating in the CoH indicate erosion rates of 2–3 m/Ma, and suggests that the caves are younger than 4 Ma. In combination with other dating techniques and knowledge of cave geometries it appears that most caves formed sometime between 2–3 Ma and, as the climate changed, may have been relatively inactive (except as fossil depositories) after that. Caves with macrofossils are not randomly distrib- uted, but relate to a range of topographic and geological controls such as terrain roughness, slope direction, faulting and proximity to water sources, which allows for the construction of fossil prospectivity maps. Fossil deposits also appear to vary depending on their position on the landscape (e.g. breccia-dominated deposits away from river courses; mud-dominated deposits near river courses). New species like A. sediba and H. naledi come from non- traditional deposits and suggest a high degree of localized niche behaviour by hominins. Whilst fossil distribution can be linked to landscape-scale processes; fossil preservation is a function of the cave environment itself. Within individual caves, it can be observed that fossil deposits occur intermittently separated by depositional non-conformities commonly deco- rated with flowstone. Of particular interest is evidence of event horizons in the sedimentary sequence that link to fossil deposits and reflect sudden and dramatic changes to the cave environment. These changes could be externally driven (e.g. a climate event) or internal to the cave (e.g. chamber collapse). Of note are the association of fossil deposits with geological anomalies such as quartz veins or palaeomagnetic reversals. ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 41 Conference Abstracts Tridactyl dinosaur trackways in the Lower Jurassic upper Elliot Formation near Lephoto village (Roma, Maseru District, Lesotho) Abrahams, M.1, Bordy, E.M.1, Sciscio, L.1, Knoll, F.2,3 1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 South Africa 2School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K. 3School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, U.K. Footprint morphology (outline, shape, impression depth) is a principal feature used to interpret verte- brate tracks. The upper Elliot Formation is well known for the wealth of Early Jurassic footprint sites and their different morphologies. Recent fieldwork on previously reported but unstudied footprint localities within the Lower Jurassic upper Elliot Formation at Roma (Maseru District, Lesotho) has revealed approx- imately 40 footprints on a single 4 m2 slab near Lephoto village. These tracks vary in size and make up thee distinct track-ways. Morphologically the footprints are tridactyl, with divergent curvature of the digits and pointy tips with some prints preserving digital pad impressions and claw marks. The tridactyl prints can be subdivided by size due to low morphological variation. These split the tracks into two groups, smaller (6 cm length) footprints and larger (16 cm length) footprints. Trackways illustrate three individu- als walking in E–W and W–E directions. Although preservation of the slab and the associated sedimento- logical structures (e.g. ripple marks and dessication cracks) is good, it is unclear as to whether or not the footprints are true-tracks or under-tracks. The footprints can be attributed to theropod track-makers based on the following criteria: a) the absence of manus impressions which is suggestive of bipeds, b) the impressions are long rather than broad and c) the digits are asymmetrical, long and slender. Funding acknowledgement: The financial support of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences) and NRF Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers to E.M.B. towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Generic and specific concepts in Molteno and Gondwana palaeobotany Anderson, H.M. Honorary Research Associate, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg An historical perspective is provided of the development of the ‘Palaeodeme’ concept and its application to the study of fossil plants from the Molteno Formation as undertaken by John Anderson and myself. The palaeodeme was the subject of a presentation at the first PSSA meeting in the early 1970s. Now 45 years on we still have the same problems in palaeobotany and a novice researcher could well be asking the same question I once asked. How does one define the variable leaves of the genus Dicroidium – as one or as six genera and decide on a multitude of specific names? How does one communicate with researchers from the various Gondwana continents if the same definitions are not used? One may ask ‘Is it of concern?’ In solving problems of distribution, phylogeny, palaeoecology it is of great importance to use uniform taxon- omy and nomenclature. According to present literature, Umkomasia, the female fruit of Dicroidium first appears in the Upper Permian of India (Chandra et al. 2008) and the last record is from the Lower Creta- ceous of Mongolia (Shi et al. 1916). In my opinion these fruits have been incorrectly classified and are not Umkomasia. Therefore, even a simple question ‘What is the first and last appearance of a genus?’ can lead to very different answers. At present Umkomasia, originally based on a good collection of fossils with the affiliated male organs (Pteruchus) and the leaves (Dicroidium) is becoming a basket genus for any female fruit with somewhat similar cupule morphology found anywhere in the world. Biodiversity and extinction Anderson, J.M.1,2 1Honorary Research Associate, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2Honorary Professor, Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth We are running a 12-part series on ‘Biodiversity & Extinction’ in the school-kid magazine Supernova. Each part covers a major group of plants or animals on a two-page spread. And each aims to include the most recently published Timetree for the relevant group, along with sketches of typical members of the orders (or classes) covered. The focus, then, is on the known (and still unknown) global diversity of the group and on our ongoing human impact on that richness of life. The interdependent nature of all life, climate change and drifting continents is emphasized. The seven parts published to date are: Part 1, Introduction, ‘from the printing press to biodiversity’; Part 2, Flowering Plants, that appeared at around 135 Ma in the 42 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 Early Cretaceous; Part 3, Birds, that appeared at around 150 Ma, in the Late Jurassic; Part 4, Mammals, that appeared at around 200 Ma, in the Late Triassic; Part 5, Insects, that appeared around 425 Ma, in the Late Silurian; Part 6, Molluscs, that appeared at around 540 Ma, near the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary; and Part 7, Hominins, including the gorillas, chimpanzees and humans going back to around 10 Ma. From Parts 2 to 6, the roots of the Timetrees reach progressively further back in time from the Early Cretaceous to the Late Ediacaran. The idea is to end the series with Part 12, Homo sapiens, who appeared in the last wink of a geological eye (some 200 000 years ago) – and have had a devastating impact on the rest of life, setting alight the Sixth Extinction. For each part, we coauthor with two specialist scientists from the universities and research organizations around South Africa – thus involving a spreading authoritative network. Supernova is a South African magazine, based in Pretoria, that appears every 2 months. They target school kids between the ages of 9 and 14. Their mission is to ‘make children aware of issues which affect them, their community, and their environment, by giving them tools and inspiration to become active and responsible world citizens.’ Their aim is to filter into the school curriculum and to be used by ‘educators as a classroom resource’. This meets our aims exactly in producing the series – and the further it spreads across Africa and beyond, the more those aims will be met. Life history insights of the dodo from bone histology Angst, D.1, Chinsamy, A.1, Steel, L.2, Hume, J.3 1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rhodes Gift, 7701 South Africa 2Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, U.K. 3Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD (Bird Group) Raphus cucullatus, the dodo, is a large extinct flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauri- tius, that was first described at the end of the 16th century when sailors arrived on the island. By the end of the 17th century it was extinct due to human activities. Although this bird was contemporaneous with humans for several decades, we know hardly anything about its ecology. Since it is well recognized that the microscopic structure of fossil bones retains signals pertaining to various aspects of their biology, we conducted a histological analysis of various long bones of the dodo. Twenty-two bones (four femora, one humerus, twelve tibiotarsi and two tarsometatarsi) were obtained from the swamp, La Mare aux Songes in the southeastern part of Mauritius, while four tibiotarsi were obtained from various cave sites on the island. Our results were quite striking in that the histological structure of the bones from the swamp were well preserved, but the bones from the cave environments showed severe degradation of the histology. The majority of the bones presented a histological structure showing three distinctive layers: the outer circumferential layer and inner circumferential layer (i.e. the OCL, and ICL) composed of lamellar bone, which enclose a central layer of fibrolamellar bone. Three of our samples showed an incipient OCL, suggesting that they had just attained sexual maturity, while one of them was clearly still a juvenile. In some of our samples, lines of arrested growth were observed in the OCL, showing periodic arrests in growth, and in one thin section at least 6–7 growth marks were evident. Interestingly among our samples there are indications of medullary bone (and hence female birds), and histological features that are attrib- utable to moulting. The bone histology of the dodo has given us unprecedented insight into various aspects of the life history of this recently extinct bird. The neuroanatomy, braincase and occiput in Gorgonopsia revealed by synchrotron microtomography Araújo, R.,1 Fernandez, V.,2 Polcyn, M.J.,3 Fröbisch, J.,4 Martins, R.M.S.5 1Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IST/UL), MfN, SMU, GEAL-ML 2European Synchrotron Research Facility 3Southern Methodist University 4Museu für Naturkunde 5Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear (IST/UL), CENIMAT, GEAL-ML The internal structures of the braincase and occipital region in gorgonopsians so far obtained from serial grinding techniques are currently incompletely known. Gorgonopsians are key synapsid taxa for the understanding of the early steps of pre-mammalian evolution. A specimen of Aloposaurus gracilis (GPIT/RE/7124) collected from the upper Permian of South Africa was subjected to propagation phase-contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography. The gorgonopsian braincase is particularly com- plex, especially in older individuals where extensive co-ossification and fusion occurred. Notably though, GPIT/RE/7124 is a juvenile specimen in which the sutures are clearly visible. The tomographies revealed the complex anatomy of braincase and occiput elements, but also of the osseous labyrinth, cranial nerves ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 43 and vasculature and brain endocast. The cerebellum is broader than the forebrain, resembling the condi- tion of other non-mammalian therapsids. The floccular complex lobes are solely delimited by the supraoccipital, yet there is an embayment on the dorsal portion of the prootics forming a lateral inflation of the cerebellum. The hypophysis is divided ventrally into two laterally-positioned pituitary lobes that communicate with the single median internal carotid foramen anteriorly. The paths of some cranial nerves and vasculature could be discerned from the tomographies. The trigeminal nerve and the vena capitis medialis exit the brain endocast from between the pila antotica and the anterodorsal process. The vidian canal runs along the laterodorsal side of the parabasisphenoid. The internal carotids pierce the parabasisphenoid laterally and join in the median plan of the skull to exit anterior to the sella turcica. The osseous labyrinth is well preserved; however, the horizontal semicircular canal is not delimited by bone. The anterior and posterior semicircular canals are housed in the prootic, supraoccipital and opsithotic. The anterior semicircular canal is significantly larger than the posterior semicircular canal. The gorgonopsian brain endocast retains many ‘reptilian’ features, demonstrating its conservative anatomy in non-mammalian therapsids. Funding acknowledgement: FCT/MEC through the EXPL/BIA-EVF/0665/2013 project and the SFRH/BPD/96205/2013 scholarship, by ESRF (proposal HG-23), PalNiassa Project. The diversity of conifer woods from the Early Cretaceous Kirkwood Formation and palaeoenvironmental implications Bamford, M.K. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa The Kirkwood Formation, Uitenhage Group, outcrops in the Algoa and Gamtoos basins, Eastern Cape Province, and has been known since 1845. Discoveries of theropod, ornithopod and sauropod dinosaurs, a variety of invertebrate fossils and plants have been made over the years. The plants comprise ferns, cycads, cycadeoids and conifers. The large trunks exposed along the Bezuidenhouts river, among other sites, are poorly preserved but the charcoal fragments, represented in a 1m thick stratified parabreccia, are much better preserved. Silicified charcoal from Shamwari game reserve is also well preserved. Three genera are known from this formation but have not been described: Agathoxylon, Brachyoxylon and Protocircoporoxylon. A representative of the genus Taxaceoxylon is now added to the list. Based on these woods from a number of other sites worldwide it is possible to reconstruct the past environment for the Kirkwood Formation. Agathoxylon is the most common wood in Gondwana and occurred in all climate zones. Brachyoxylon ranges from the Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous but is more common in summer wet environments, as is Protocircoporoxylon but its time range is limited to the Early Cretaceous. Podocarpoxylon has a long time range but did not occur in summer wet regions. Taxaceoxylon was restricted to warm temperate and winter wet environments. These woods imply a diversity of microhabitats rather than a long time range and rapidly fluctuating climate. Glacial barriers to floral migration in the Permo-Carboniferous of Gondwana Barbolini, N., Bamford, M.K., Rubidge, B.S. Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence: Palaeontology, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, South Africa The late Palaeozoic Ice Age (LPIA) is known to have had a drastic impact on biological, chemical and physical systems across Gondwana for up to 100 million years. Contemporary glaciation models now propose a more dynamic interplay of alternating glacial and interglacial cycles lasting between 1–8 million years, with ice centres waxing and waning diachronously across Gondwana. In the late Carboniferous and early Permian, southern Africa was largely enveloped by a multitude of ice sheets, ice caps, and alpine glaciers that extended to parts of South America and Antarctica. First appearance datums of many stratigraphically significant palynomorphs in the main Karoo Basin are delayed relative to other parts of Gondwana. The wide-ranging index taxon Pseudoreticulatispora (Converrucosisporites) confluens is present in deglaciation successions of Australia, Antarctica, South America, India, Oman and Saudi Arabia, but has never been recorded from South African deposits. However, C. confluens is present in the neighbouring Kalahari (Aranos) Basin of southern Namibia. The large glacial centre over the Cargonian Highlands separated the Kalahari from the Karoo Basin, and posed a significant geographic and climatic barrier that prevented successful dispersal and establishment of the parent plants of C. confluens, and possibly other plant taxa, in South Africa. This spatio-temporal variation of floras hinders global biostratigraphic correlations. Radiometric dating is useful for calibrating Permo-Carboniferous palynozones because 44 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 45 diachronous fluctuations in ice volume and palaeoclimate had a strong influence on plant migrations and extinctions. This resulted in differing stratigraphic ranges of continental floras across Gondwana. Funding acknowledgement: The support of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences) and NRF African Origin Platform towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Addi- tional financial support was received from the Mellon Foundation, National Research Foundation, the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) and its Scatterlings of Africa Programmes, and the University of the Witwatersrand. Early hominin brain evolution: extracting palaeoneurological evidence from the fossil record Beaudet, A.,1 Dumoncel, J.,2 de Beer, F.,3 Durrleman, S.,4 Gilissen, E.,5 Oettlé, A.6, Subsol, G.7, Thackeray, F.,8 Braga, J.9 1Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, South Africa 2UMR 5288 AMIS CNRS-Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier, France 3South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, Pelindaba, South Africa 4INRIA, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Université Paris 06, UMR S 1127, Inserm U 1127, UMR 7225 Aramis CNRS, ICM, Paris, France 5Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium 6Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, South Africa 7ICAR Research-Team, LIRMM, UMR 5506 CNRS, Université de Montpellier, France 8Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 9UMR 5288 AMIS CNRS-Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier, France Tracking the early appearance of the derived Homo-like neuroanatomical features in the hominin fossil record should contribute the assessment of (i) the inter-taxic evolutionary relationships within the human lineage and (ii) the tempo and mode of the most critical endocranial changes (i.e. size increase, cortical reorganization). Indeed, based on the investigation of East and South African early hominin endocasts, Falk and colleagues (JHE, 2000) have suggested that the palaeoneuroanatomical features of Australo- pithecus are consistent with a potential ancestral condition to Homo as compared to the more ape-like Paranthropus pattern. Based on recent development of 3D imaging and modelling methods, we revised the endocranial morphoarchitectural pattern of three Pliocene Australopithecus africanus (STS 5, STS 60, Taung) and one Early Pleistocene Paranthropus boisei (OH 5) representatives with respect to the extant human (n = 10), chimpanzee (n = 10), and bonobo (n = 10) conditions. We combined a semi-automatic technique for extracting the sulcal pattern together with a landmark-free registration method based on deformations. Both local and global information provided by our morphometric approach are used to perform statistical classification and topological analysis of inter- and intra-specific variation. In associa- tion with a morphology of the frontal lobes that substantially differs from the non-hominin condition, the fossil hominin endocasts combine a global neural condition closer to Pan than to Homo. The Australopithecus sulcal pattern preserves both Homo- (i.e. the middle and superior frontal sulci organiza- tion) and Pan-like (i.e. the fronto-orbital sulcus) features. Additionally, our analyses support a relatively closer affinity between Australopithecus/Homo than between Paranthropus/Homo. Funding acknowledgement: Supported by PRES of Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées Region, French MAEDI and CNRS, AESOP+ programme. We are grateful for access to the HPC resources of CALMIP supercomputing centre (2015-P1440). We thank Stephany Potze, curator of the Palaeontology Section of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (Pretoria) and Little Company of Mary (Pretoria) for collection access and data acquisition. S. Benazzi for OH 5 record sharing. A reappraisal of the capacity to envenom the bite in Euchambersia (Therocephalia, Therapsida) using µCT scanning Benoit, J.1, Norton, L.A.2 1Evolutionary Studies Institute & School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Euchambersia mirabilis is an iconic species of Permo-Triassic therapsid because of its unusually large exter- nal maxillary fossa associated with a ridged canine. This anatomy led to the commonly accepted conclu- sion that the large fossa accommodated a venom gland. Because Euchambersia is considered the earliest and most robustly supported case of a venomous terrestrial vertebrate, it usually serves as a model for the inference of envenoming capacity in other fossil species. However, a review of the literature demonstrates 46 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 inconsistencies in the interpretation of the morphology of the canine, which sheds some doubt about the hypothesis that Euchambersia was venomous. As such, we conducted a µCT scan-assisted reappraisal of the envenoming capacity of Euchambersia, with a special focus on the anatomy of the maxillary fossa and canine. This study included both known specimens of Euchambersia. It shows that the fossa, presumably for the venom-producing gland, is directly linked to the maxillary canal, which carries the trigeminal nerve (responsible for the sensitivity of the face). The peculiar anatomy of the maxillary canal suggests important modifications in the somatosensory system of the face. In addition, we describe for the first time the complete crown morphology of the incisiform teeth of Euchambersia; a replacement maxillary incisor, and an isolated incisor, possibly of mandibular origin. The upper incisor has a concave labial surface, whereas the isolated tooth is strongly recurved and bears lateral ridges. Together, these data support that the maxillary fossa could have housed a venom-producing gland, a specialized sensory organ, or both. Funding acknowledgement: Thanks to K. Carlson, T. Jashashvili, and K. Jakata (Wits MicroCT facility) and F. Ahmed (BMNH, London) for performing the scans of the fossil material. This research was conducted with financial support of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, the NRF African Origins Platform, and Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) and its Scatterlings of Africa Programmes. The sup- port of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the CoE in Palaeosciences. Stratigraphy and depositional environment of Namibian continental shelf sediments as indicated by fossil foraminifera Bergh, E.W.1, Compton, J.S.2 1Natural History Department, Iziko Museums of South Africa, Cape Town 2Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town The Pleistocene-aged sediments on the Namibian continental shelf are rich in pelletal phosphorite con- taining a wide variety of biogenic grains including foraminifera. Vibracores from the central Namibian continental shelf to south of the Kunene River mouth were studied to determine the depositional history and palaeoenvironment of the area. Foraminiferal index species Globoquadrina dehiscens and Globigeri- noides bisphericus, and Sr-age dating on foraminiferal tests from the northern shelf revealed a Middle Miocene age for foraminifera in olive-green mud units underlying pelletal phosphorite units. The contact between the olive-green mud units and overlying pelletal phosphorite units is sharp and erosional. Components above the contact were found to be reworked Late Miocene to Pleistocene in age. The final deposition of the pelletal phosphorite sand units took place in the Pleistocene confirmed by index species such as Globorotalia inflata and Globorotalia truncatulinoides. The water depth for the Miocene-aged foraminifera was greater than today and Pleistocene-aged foraminifera indicated shallower depths for that time period. Planktonic foraminifera and trace abundances of the ostracods Henryhowella and Bairdoppilata indicate subtropical warmer surface waters during the Miocene cooling slightly during the Quaternary. Funding acknowledgement: National Research Foundation. The role of museums in palaeontological education Bergh, E.W.,1 Naran, D.,2 Taylor, W.2 1Natural History Department, Iziko Museums of South Africa, Cape Town, and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town 2Education and Public Programmes Department, Iziko Museums of South Africa, Cape Town Museums are constantly redefining and questioning their role in society. These institutions are more than just a space to display strange, unusual and interesting objects. Museums such as the Iziko South African Museum have the benefit of extensive collections, public exhibitions and specialist scientists. The Museum’s Education and Public Programmes and Natural History Departments work together to present fossil and evolution workshops to schools and tertiary institutions. The content of these workshops is aligned with the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) at primary school and secondary school (grades 10 and 12) level. Workshops are also adapted for tertiary-level life sciences, environmental management and education students. The fossil and evolution workshops are presented by palaeontol- ogy curators and focus on fossil basics, the evolutionary record, continental drift and other geological topics. Tours within the Museum’s fossil exhibitions are led by museum curators and educators to supple- ment the presentations. The workshops have shown that there is an important role for museums to assist teachers and lecturers in educating students. The need for geology and basic palaeontology programmes may be greater at schools from disadvantaged backgrounds. A pre-workshop evaluation of one of the fos- sil workshops showed that less than 15% of learners had any idea of what a fossil was. This percentage increased by nearly 40% post-workshop. Other indicators recorded improvements on different scales for the various topics that were assessed. The success of these workshops in assisting learners to understand basic concepts are enhanced through interactive, hands-on activities that utilize museum specimens. A new theropod dinosaur footprint site in the Lower Jurassic Elliot Formation (Mafube, eastern Free State, South Africa): footprint preservation in a semi-arid fluvio-lacustrine setting Bordy, E.M., Sciscio, L., Reid, M., Abrahams, M. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 South Africa Bipedal saurischian dinosaur tracks have been recently discovered in the Lower Jurassic Elliot Forma- tion at Mafube Mountain Retreat (eastern Free State, South Africa). We studied over 80 tridactyl tracks on the bedding surface of a single sandstone bed that shows evidence for footprint preservation in an aban- doned, high energy ephemeral stream, which is typical in semi-arid climates. The tracks show large shape variability over the length of the bed; however, these morphological differences are considered here to be mainly due to variations in the substrate rheology (e.g. moisture content) as opposed to differences in the trackmaker’s foot anatomy, foot kinematics or recent, footprint modifying weathering processes on the exposed bedding surface. Desiccation cracks, invertebrate burrows, ripple marks, etc., preserved in asso- ciation with and within some of the Mafube tracks suggest that the imprints are essentially contempora- neous and are true tracks rather than undertracks or erosional remnants. The best preserved footprints are therefore valuable not only for the interpretation of the palaeoenvironment (i.e. seasonally dry river channels) but also for taxonomic assessments, because some of them closely resemble the original anat- omy of the trackmaker’s foot. The Mafube ichnotaxa are assigned to Eubrontes and potentially Grallator ichnogenera and are linked to large and small tridactyl theropod trackmakers, possibly to Dracovenator and Coelophysis based on the following criteria: a) lack of manus impressions indicative of obligate bipeds; (b) long, slender digits, asymmetrical, tapering, (c) often ending in a claw impression or point, and (d) the prints being longer than broad. Funding acknowledgement: The financial support of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences and NRF Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers to E.M.B. towards this research is hereby ac- knowledged. New data on the Permo-Triassic Boundary from the Karoo Basin of South Africa Botha-Brink, J.1, Huttenlocker, A.K.2, Smith, R.M.H.3, Prevec, R.4, Modesto, S. P.5, Viglietti, P.3 1Karoo Palaeontology Department, National Museum, P.O. Box 266, Bloemfontein, South Africa 2Biology Department, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, Utah, U.S.A. 3Evolutionary Studies Institute, School for Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa 4Rhodes University and the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa 5Cape Breton University, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada The South African Karoo Basin preserves a detailed record of environmental and evolutionary changes associated with the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME) that has been the focus of considerable research for decades. Currently, the Permo-Triassic boundary (PTB) is defined biostratigraphically by the last appearance of Daptocephalus leoniceps and Lystrosaurus maccaigi. Recently there has been much debate regarding this placement within the South African Karoo Supergroup. Recent research has resulted in claims that the vertebrate-defined PTME in South Africa is not synchronous with the extinction in the marine realm. This assertion has important implications for correctly interpreting and understanding the PTME in South Africa. Our ongoing fieldwork at PTB sites in the Free State, particularly on the farm Nooitgedacht 68, has yielded new information on the placing of this event. We present an updated lithostratigraphic log of the PTB at Nooitgedacht 68 that includes new in situ records of archosauromorphs and therapsids. For the first time, plants and an insect wing are recorded at the site, including lidgettonioid Glossopteris leaves and fragments of a fern species previously unknown from the Late Perm- ian of South Africa. Isotope stratigraphy shows a negative excursion at the PTB, which is supported by preliminary data from therapsid enamel. A preliminary U-Pb date from detrital zircons using thermal ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 47 ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) places a maximum age on the boundary fauna. We compare these data with coeval sites and use them to address the claim that the vertebrate-defined PTME in South Africa does not coincide with the marine PTME. Funding acknowledgement: The National Research Foundation (UID 95980, 82605 to J.B-B.) is gratefully acknowledged for their support. The support of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (CoE in Palaeosciences) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Palaeoenvironment, stratigraphy and evolution of Mesozoic rift basins, onshore Outeniqua Basin, Western and Eastern Cape, South Africa Bowen, D., van der Linde, C., Dinis, Y., Muir, R.A., Bordy, E.M. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 South Africa The Mesozoic rift basins of the Western and Eastern Cape demonstrate a dichotomy in extant research. The Uitenhage Group sedimentary rocks and their palaeontological heritage in the Algoa Basin are well- researched, in contrast to poorly documented onshore compartments of the Oudtshoorn, Heidelberg, Gamtoos and Pletmos basins. This presents a problem in that current assumptions made about these rift compartments lack the stratigraphic context to accurately compare them with the Algoa Basin, which has a seemingly more fossiliferous sedimentary fill. Furthermore, without comprehensive synthesis of strati- graphic data from all these Mesozoic basins, the context of any palaeontological findings and their palaeoenvironments would be geographically and temporally limited. This research aims to provide that stratigraphic context by conducting ongoing sedimentological, geochronological, and palaeontological studies in these four lesser-studied Mesozoic basins. Detailed lithofacies and architectural element analy- ses have enabled the reconstruction of fluvial, lacustrine and coastal regimes in these rift compartments. Palaeontological findings have been noted, and together with sedimentological data, a rift sequence strati- graphic framework of these four basins is being compiled to better document their development. U-Pb dating of zircons from several tuffaceous beds would allow the refinement of the temporal relationships within these basins and their correlation to the Algoa Basin. Funding acknowledgement: The financial support of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, SACCS and NRF African Origins Platform (grant #91601) to E.M.B. towards this research is hereby acknowledged. A record of sedimentation of the Late Ordovician Soom Shale Member (Cedarberg Formation) from new borehole data in the Cedarberg region of South Africa Browning, C.,1 Gabbott, S.,2 Zalasiewicz, J.,2 Theron, J.3 1Council for Geoscience, Department of Mapping Geology, Bellville, South Africa 2Department of Geology, Leicester University, LE1 7RH U.K. 3Department of Earth Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602 South Africa The Late Ordovician glaciation–deglaciation is recorded in the South African Table Mountain Group (Cape Supergroup) by the Pakhuis and Cedarberg formations, respectively. The Cedarberg Formation, consisting of Soom Shale and Disa Siltstone Members, forms an upward coarsening cycle of sedimenta- tion in a shallow marine setting and is overlain by the dominantly fluvial sandstones of the Goudini Formation. The Soom Shale Member is particularly significant as it represents the only Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätte in southwestern Gondwana. A preliminary investigation of the sedimentary rocks revealed an unusual facies comprising coarse quartz grains that occur in clusters and aggregates within organic matter and intercalated within distal, laminated turbidites. This microfabric was tentatively linked to glacially derived loess which was either blown across seasonal sea ice or directly into the sea. To obtain new data on this unique facies, we drilled a 40 m stratigraphic core through the lower Cedarberg and upper Pakhuis formations on Holfontein farm (~25 km south of Clanwilliam). A detailed (mm-scale) sedimentological log, petrographic thin sections and Scanning Electron Microscope analysis were employed to quantify and interpret the sedimentary facies. Our preliminary results show that the unique laminated facies is well-developed throughout the Soom Shale and persists, albeit less prolifically, into the Disa Siltstone Member. To explain the origin of this unique facies, in this study we explore hypotheses, including: 1) loess-derived quartz fertilizing marine algal blooms and 2) an algal mat-bound seafloor trapping quartz grains. Funding acknowledgement: National Geographic, Council for Geoscience, University of Leicester. 48 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 A new gorgonopsian from the uppermost Daptocephalus Assemblage Zone, Karoo Basin of South Africa Butler, E.,1 Botha-Brink, J.,1 Abdala, N.F.2 1Karoo Palaeontology, National Museum, P.O. Box 266, Bloemfontein, 9300 South Africa 3Evolutionary Studies Institute and School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa The gorgonopsian therapsids are well known in the Permian deposits of Africa, Russia, India and China. By the middle Late Permian these gorgonopsians become the dominant terrestrial predators of Gondwana and by the end of the Permian they were geographically widespread in southern Africa with a high taxonomic diversity. However, they did not survive the Permo-Triassic mass extinction some 252 million years ago. Here we describe the skulls and postcranial elements of a new species from South Africa. Although these specimens are the geologically youngest gorgonopsians known, they exhibit several basal characteristics, similar to the geologically older specimens from the Eodicynodon and Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zones. A comparison with Russian taxa reveals that the new species is similar to the gorgonopsian Inostrancevia, which is only known from Russia. The presence of palatal tuberosities and absence of palatal teeth compared to the Russian species suggests that, although closely related, the new material does not belong to the Russian genus. This new gorgonopsian has several implications for South African biostratigraphy and taxonomy, as well the global distribution of gorgonopsians during the Late Permian. Funding acknowledgement: National Research Foundation: African Origins Platform (UID 82605). Palaeobiological implications of the bone microstructure of pareiasaurs (Parareptilia) from the Karoo Basin, South Africa Canoville, A.* Chinsamy, A. University of Cape Town, Department of Biological Sciences, Rhodes Gift, South Africa. *Present address: Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany Numerous morphological studies have been carried out on pareiasaurs; yet their taxonomy and biology remain incompletely understood. Earlier works have suggested that these herbivorous parareptiles had a short juvenile period as compared to the duration of adulthood. Several studies further suggested an aquatic lifestyle for these animals, but more recent investigations have proposed a fully terrestrial habitat. Bone palaeohistology is regarded as a powerful tool to assess aspects of tetrapod palaeobiology. Although this method has been extensively applied to the non-mammalian therapsids of the Karoo Basin of south- ern Africa, few studies have been conducted on pareiasaurs, which were abundant in the Middle and Late Permian continental ecosystems. The present study assesses intra and inter-specific histovariability of pareiasaurs and provides fresh insight into their palaeobiology, thereby permitting a re-evaluation of earlier hypotheses. Our sample comprises various skeletal elements and several specimens covering most of the taxonomic and stratigraphic spectrum of South African pareiasaurs, including large and basal forms from the Middle Permian, as well as small and more derived forms from the Late Permian. Our results suggest that the species diversity of the pareiasaurs of the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone may have been underestimated. Bone histology also confirms that these animals experienced a relatively rapid growth early in ontogeny. The growth later slowed down during adulthood, which appears to have been extended. Pareiasaur bone microanatomy is unusual for continental tetrapods, in having extremely spongious stylopod diaphyses. Rigorous palaeoecological interpretations are thus limited since no real modern analogue exists for these enigmatic animals. Funding acknowledgement: Claude Leon Foundation. Microanatomical diversity of amniote ribs Canoville, A.1, de Buffrénil, V.2, Laurin, M.2 1Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Palaeontology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany 2CR2P, Centre de Recherches sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements, Sorbonne Universités, CNRS/MNHN/UPMC, Paris, France Numerous studies have documented long bone microanatomical diversity in tetrapods. Yet, the major- ity of previous works has focused on the appendicular skeleton. A relationship between limbbone microanatomy and lifestyle (e.g. aquatic, amphibious, terrestrial) has been uncovered and used for palaeoecological reconstructions. Relatively fewer comparative studies have focused on the microanatomy of the axial skeleton and its ecological signal. Here, we propose an extensive quantitative ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 49 study of the microanatomy of amniote ribs. Our sample comprises 155 species of extant amniotes and encompasses the taxonomic, ecological, and body size diversity of this group. We standardized our sam- pling location to the midshaft of mid-dorsal ribs. Transverse sections were obtained from classical petrographic methods, as well as from X-ray microtomography. Our analyses reveal that most of the microanatomical and size parameters of the ribs display a phylogenetic signal, an expected result also ob- served in amniote limb bones and vertebrae. We found a significant relationship between rib cortical thickness, global compactness and lifestyle. As for the vertebrae, the development of the spongiosa in the medullary region seems to be strongly correlated with size. This study is complementary to previous work conducted on long bones and vertebrae because it further documents bone inner architectural diversity and offers a better understanding of the general adaptation of the skeleton to environmental and biomechanical constraints. Funding acknowledgement: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Cancellous network patterning and cortical bone distribution at the proximal femoral end in Paranthropus robustus Cazenave, M.1, Braga, J.2, de Beer, F.3, Hoffman, J.W.3, Macchiarelli, M.4, Oettlé, A.5, Thackeray, J.F.6 1Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France 2UMR 5288 CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, and Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 3South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, Pelindaba, South Africa 4UMR 7194 CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, and Unité de Formation Géosciences, Université de Poitiers, France 5Department of Anatomy, University of Pretoria, South Africa 6Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Compared with the extant human condition, some characteristics of the paranthropine proximal femur provide evidence for a gait-related adaptation resulting in relatively increased superoinferior bending loads at the femoro-pelvic complex. As also body shape in this extinct hominin differs in some way from the human bauplan, we expect the biomechanically-related cortico-trabecular signature imprinted at the coxo-femoral joint somehow reflects such differences in terms of site-specific structural arrangement. By means of X-ray microtomography the cancellous network properties and cortical bone topographic varia- tion in four adult upper femoral ends from Swartkrans P. robustus samples: SK 82 and SK 97, likely males, and SK 3121 and SKW 19, likely females, were investigated. While relatively and absolutely denser, and also locally more contrasted, especially along the mediolateral axis, the cancellous network of P. robustus globally traces the human pattern. Interestingly, for their proportion of thinner struts, the likely sex-related differences expressed by the fossil specimens exceed the range measured in our comparative modern sample (n = 9). Similarly to the CT-based results provided by Ruff and Higgins (AJPA, 2013), we found superoinferior cortical bone asymmetry in the neck of SK 82 and SK 97 (S/I thickness ratio <1.0), and also confirm the finding that asymmetry in P. robustus is expressed at a lower degree than in extant humans. However, because of the higher resolution of our record, present estimates allowed for a subtler assessment of cross-sectional changes along the neck. Accordingly, they reveal that, at the midneck, P. robustus had more human-like proportions than previously observed. Funding acknowledgement: We especially acknowledge B. Billing, L. Kgasi, D. Morris and S. Potze for access to fossil and comparative materials, K. Jakata for X-ray microtomographic acquisitions at Wits, and K. Carlson for scientific collaboration and data sharing (SKW 19). Research funded by the Erasmus Mundus AESOP and the AESOP+ programmes, the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), the French CNRS. Three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the cranial ontogeny of Massospondylus carinatus based on CT reconstructions Chapelle, K., Choiniere, J.N. Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Understanding ontogenetic variation in dinosaurs is necessary because it informs taxonomic hypothe- ses, elucidates larger macroevolutionary patterns, and allows for the inference of behavioural traits such as parental care, feeding and locomotion. Massospondylus carinatus Owen 1854 is an emblematic South African basal sauropodomorph dinosaur and it presents an ideal study system for dinosaurian cranial 50 ISSN 2410-4418 Palaeont. afr. (April 2017) 51: 27–85 ontogeny because it has a range of referred specimens aged from hatchling to adult. This study recon- structs individual skull bones of a size series of M. carinatus using CT scans and qualitatively and quantita- tively assesses the ontogenetic variation between these bones. The results show clear differences in the development between facial bones and braincase bones (both in the amount of growth and in the correla- tion between size and shape). Several morphological differences are also identified between juveniles and adults. There is a possibility that several species are represented in the M. carinatus sample, based on both the qualitative and quantitative assessments. Funding acknowledgement: DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeontology, Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) and its Scatterlings of Africa Programmes, University of the Witwatersrand. Vascularized, endosteal bone tissue in saltasaurine titanosaurs from Argentina Chinsamy, A.,1 Cerda, I.,2 Powell, J.3 1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rhodes Gift, 7700 South Africa 2CONICET, Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Museo Carlos Ameghino, Belgrano 1700, Paraje Pichi Ruca (predio Marabunta) 8300, Cipolletti, Río Negro, Argentina 3CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Miguel Lillo 205, (4000) Tucumán, Argentina Well-vascularized, endosteal bone in the medullary region of long bones of non-avian dinosaurs has been invoked as being homologous to avian medullary bone, a specialized tissue formed during ovula- tion. However, similar bone tissues are known to form in response to pathologies in modern birds and in non-avian dinosaurs, and have also been reported in an immature non-avian dinosaur. In the current study we describe the occurrence of well-vascularized endosteal bone tissue in three skeletal elements of saltasaurine titanosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina: i) within the medullary cavity of a meta- tarsal, ii) inside a pneumatic cavity of a posterior caudal vertebra, iii) in intra-trabecular spaces in an osteoderm. Our results show that considering the criteria of location, origin (or development), and histol- ogy, these endosteally-derived tissues in these armoured sauropods could be described as either medullary bone or pathological bone. Additionally, we show that similar endosteally-formed well-vascularized bone tissue is quite widely distributed among non-dinosaurian archosauriforms, and is not restricted only to long bones, but can occur in the axial, and dermal skeleton. We propose that inde- pendent evidence is required to verify whether vascularized endosteal bone tissues in extinct archosaurs are pathological or reproductive in nature. CT-based reconstruction of the skull of the basal maniraptoran Ornitholestes hermanni Osborn 1903 Choiniere, J.N.,1 Chapelle, K.E.J.,1 Brusatte, S.L.,2 Hendrickx, C.,1 Norell, M.A.3 1Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2University of Edinburgh 3American Museum of Natural History More than 100 years after its discovery, the phylogenetic relationships of the theropod taxon Ornitholestes hermanni remain enigmatic. General consensus holds that Ornitholestes is important for un- derstanding the early evolution of Maniraptora, the theropod group that includes birds and their agile, generally small bodied relatives. Confusion about this taxon’s relationships is in part due to the crushed preservation of the holotype skull,