Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
05 June 2018
Photo Supplied
Research fellow Dr Lloyd Rossouw from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently published an article in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal with Dr Michaela Ecker from the University of Toronto as lead author, and Dr James Brink, research fellow at the UFS Centre for Environmental Management. The findings described in “The palaeoecological context of the Oldowan-Acheulean in southern Africa” provides the first extensive paleoenvironmental sequence for the interior of southern Africa by applying a combination of methods for environmental reconstruction at Wonderwerk Cave, which have yielded multiple evidence of early human occupation dating back almost two million years ago.
Where water once was
The Wonderwerk Cave is found north of the Kuruman hills (situated in Northern Cape) a 140m long tube with a low ceiling. The surroundings are harsh. Semi-arid conditions allow for the survival of only hardy bushes, trees, and grasses. But during the Early Pleistocene, stepping out of the Wonderwerk Cave you would have been greeted by a completely different site, the researchers found. Using carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis on the teeth of herbivores (Dr Ecker), fossil faunal abundance (Dr Brink), as well as the analysis of microscopic plant silica remains (phytoliths) excavated from fossil soils inside the cave (Dr Rossouw), the results show that ancient environments in the central interior of southern Africa were significantly wetter and housed a plant community unlike any other in the modern African savanna.
What difference does it make?
While East African research shows increasing aridity and the spread of summer-rainfall grasslands more than a million years ago, the results from this study indicate an interesting twist. During the same period, shifts in rainfall seasonality allowed for alternating summer and winter-rainfall grass occurrences coupled with prolonged wetlands, that remained major components of Early Pleistocene (more or less the period between one and two million years ago) environments in the central interior of southern Africa. That means our human ancestors were also living and evolving in environments other than the generally accepted open, arid grassland model.
Kovsie, Boom Prinsloo rocks at 2010 FNB Varsity Cup tournament
2010-04-14
Boom Prinsloo
Photo: varsitycup.co.za
|
Of all the players from the different universities who played in the recent 2010 FNB Varsity Cup tournament, a Kovsie, Boom Prinsloo walked off with the overall Player-that-Rocks Award after being voted as the Player of the 2010 FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International. In three of Shimlas’s eight matches this star No.8 was named player of the match for his high work rate on attack as well as strong defence. This earned him three man-of-the-match wards. With his seven touchdowns, including four against NMMU, he and Lola Waka from the University of Johannesburg also jointly ended up as top try-scorers of the tournament. Boom picked up R15 000 for his efforts and can feel well-satisfied with his hard work this season. |