Honeymoon Consideration In South Africa, Scientists are Piecing

Bringing History to Life

In South Africa, Scientists are Piecing Together Dinosaur Fossils from a ‘Triassic Park’

By Heather Djunga

Putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle can be a lot of fun! Especially when the pieces are millions of years old. Jonah Choinière of the

Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South

Africa, and his team of paleontologists put together the pieces of two giant dinosaur skeletons during the recent lockdown period in South Africa.

These skeletons were among many fossil remains of prehistoric creatures shepherd Dumangwe

Thyobeka found in 2018 in Qhemegha, a

village in Eastern Cape Province. Thyobeka had seen what appeared to be dinosaur bones — he reasoned that they were much too big to be cattle bones. He knew to notify the authorities, and Choinière said he could still remember how excited he was when he and his team arrived at the site.

“There were dinosaur bones and fossils sticking out everywhere, although to the untrained eye, these fossils wouldn’t be immediately obvious,” he said. “There might have been a water hole there millions of years ago, because of the richness of the fi nd.”

Choinière said they had unearthed a lost world, which some have nicknamed “Jurassic Park.” But it’s more of a “Triassic Park,” as most of the fi nds date to the Triassic Period (252 million to 201 million years ago). Some of the fi nds are as old

as 220 million years old.

The site has had a lot of international media coverage over the past two years because of its rich heritage and signifi cance to the fi eld of paleontology. Choinière explained the excavation team had uncovered an ecosystem hidden from view for more than 200 million years. An ecosystem is made of a whole lot of animals, plants and other creatures that rely on one another to survive.

“In addition to the dinosaurs we have found on the site, we have hundreds of bones of other animals, including early mammal relatives, early crocs and some things we cannot yet identify,” he said. “That means there were a lot of diff erent types of animals alive on the same spot at the same time — and that it wasn’t just dinosaurs! If you went on a safari then you’d see way more than just dinosaurs.”

Work on the site began in 2018 and continued until just before the 2020 lockdown.

Choinière said they had just uncovered a quarry with fi ve new species in it when the country was locked down because of the coronavirus.

Fortunately for the team, they had already lifted signifi cant (and big) fossil material from the site — using forklifts, gantry cranes and fl atbed trucks — and transported it to their lab at the University of the Witwatersrand.

“The fi rst fossil we prepared was a total surprise,” he said. “We thought it was a jumble of many diff erent animals, but it turned out to be this huge sauropodomorph, with all the bones just mixed up!”

A sauropodomorph is a huge plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck and tiny head. It evolved to become the largest land animals of all time.

“I’ve never dealt with anything this size before,” Choinière said of the fossil. “Even the plaster jackets, used for making impressions of the fossils, were so big we had to use special equipment to open them.”

As of now, the new species of dinosaurs remains unnamed.

“There are many ways to name a dinosaur. You just need to make sure that the name has more than one letter and you can’t name it after

A digger fl ips Cape Province

s over a plaster jacket containing the bones of a giant sauropodomorph dinosaur near Qhemegha, a village in Eastern e, South Africa. A shepherd found the site that is fi lled with dinosaurs and other animals from the Triassic Period, which was about 252 million to 201 million years ago. (Jonah Choinière)

yourself,” he said. “Generally, scientists name the animals after local phenomena, or a local [god] or legend.”

He said the site forms part of a dinosaur-rich area of the Free State and Eastern Cape, which

he hopes will one day become a famous “Dinosaur Route” for paleontologists and

tourists. The local authorities are in the process of registering the area as a national heritage site.

Choinière grew up in Massachusetts, but said he decided to move to South Africa because of its rich fossil heritage, with fi nds ranging from the dawn of time to the beginnings of mankind.

“Before this fi nd, we knew very little about the Triassic Period in South Africa. Most of the fossils from that time period were very scrappy and hard to identify,” he said. “We can now confi dently state that by the time we describe all of the new species from Qhemegha, we’ll have doubled the number of species previously known from the South African Triassic.”

Dinosaur attractions

South Africa has many exciting tourist sites for children who love dinosaurs: » The Iziko South African Museum in Cape

Town has what Jonah Choinière calls “the best dinosaur display in the country.” » The Albany Museum in Makhanda also has an excellent display and is a bit closer to

Qhemegha. » There is a dinosaur display and soon to be a dinosaur interpretive center (the

Kgodomodomo Dinosaur Center) at Golden

Gate Highlands National Park in the Free State

Province. www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/ in-south-africa-scientists-are-piecing-togetherdinosaur-fossils-from-a-triassic-park/2021/04/05/ ad08ec26-8e34-11eb-a6bd-0eb91c03305a_ story.html?outputType=amp#aoh=1617796973 8457&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww. google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s