‘Humble’ knowledge in the palaeosciences : isn’t it
- Authors: Vilakazi, Nonhlanhla
- Date: 2019
- Language: Englosh
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/407368 , uj:34287 , Citation: Vilakazi, N. 2019. ‘Humble’ knowledge in the palaeosciences: isn’t it. South African Archaeological Bulletin 74 (211): 138–140.
- Description: Abstract: The palaeosciences have grown immensely in southern Africa over the past 50 years. Many of the ‘discoveries’ that have propelled this growth have been attributed to various researchers but not necessarily to the individuals who were actually behind the discovery. Narrations from local communities have shown that people who have never been acknowledged in fact either made the discovery, or knew of its existence and significance. Increasingly, researchers and scholars confirm these narrations. The purpose of this discussion is to provide a voice to the voiceless, the initiators of the discovery of these significant remains, to identify the ‘humble’ knowledge holders in palaeoscientific findings whose identities have been largely hidden, with some rare exceptions. This is one of the ways in which the process of decolonisation can be initiated, leading to giving the anonymous, unrecognised discoverers their rightful place in the palaeosciences...
- Full Text: false
First fossil Agama lizard discovered in the Cradle of Humankind (Bolt’s Farm Cave System, South Africa)
- Authors: Vilakazi, Nonhlanhla , Gommery, Dominique , Kgasi, Lazarus
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Plio-Pleistocene , Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site , Agamidae
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/476374 , uj:43007 , Citation: VILAKAZI, N., GOMMERY, D. and KGASI, L., 2020. First fossil Agama lizard discovered in the Cradle of Humankind (Bolt’s Farm Cave System, South Africa). Annals of the Ditsong National Museum of Natural History 9: 000–000.
- Description: Abstract: Plio-Pleistocene sites in the Cradle of HumankindWorld Heritage Site (recognized by UNESCO), including Taung and Makapansgat Limeworks, all in South Africa, have not only yielded a rich collection of macrofauna but also an abundance of microfauna. Even though the extant small lizards are highly diverse with 23 families and 350 species in southern Africa, very few fossil remains have been studied. This is probably due in part to difficulties in accessing comparative osteological collections (the comparative material is usually rarely completely prepared, rendering anatomical study almost impossible). In 2016 an incomplete mandible with acrodont dentition was excavated in Brad Pit A (Bolt’s FarmKarst System) by the Hominid Origins and Past Environment Research Unit team.Upon inspection, the fossil resembled agamids, even though it lacked the anterior pleurodont dentition present in Agamids. The fossil specimen can only be identified as Agama sp.due to its fragmentary state, but it represents the first fossil of this genus to be reported from the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
- Full Text: