A renowned Bathurst paleontologist has found yet another ancient fossil treasure in the 70 tons of rock he salvaged years ago during roadworks outside Grahamstown.
Dr Rob Gess’s latest discovery of 30 juveniles of a new species of coelacanth from 360 million years ago, has caused a buzz in the scientific world as it pre-dates the oldest find of a nursery of prehistoric coelacanths, in America, by 60 million years.
It is also the first time that any Devonian period coelacanths have ever been found in Africa and adds another reconstructable species to the five already unearthed in North America, Europe, China and Australia.
Although Gess found his first identifiable coelacanth in the mid 90s in shale in the N2 roadworks cuttings near Waterloo Farm, it was not well enough preserved to formally describe.
“When, more recently, I found the new type of specimen with its perfectly preserved skull, I was over the moon.
Gess, who has already collected 550 individual fish fossils and as many fossils of arthropods and plants from the shale said he still had years of work left before he exhausted the pile.
“It will take several more years to describe all the material I have already excavated.
“In addition, I do two days of excavation every week in the rock sheds, so the amount of material to be written up is growing all the time!”
Over the years, Gess has been involved in the description of 15 new fossil species from Waterloo Farm shale and still has at least 15 more left to describe before he can work on new finds.
Africa’s earliest known fossil coelacanth species is described this week in the prestigious Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society by Gess, (who conducted the research as PhD student at the University of the Witwatersrand) and Professor Michael Coates of the University of Chicago.
Gess, now at Grahamstown’s Albany Museum, said the new species – which he named Serenichthys kowiensis – gives important additional information on the early evolution of coelacanths.
“According to evolutionary analysis, it is the Devonian species that most closely resembles the line leading to modern coelacanths.”
Gess has collected more than 30 specimens thus far, and, remarkably, all of these more or less complete coelacanths are juveniles.
“This suggests that serenichthys was using a shallow, waterweed-filled embayment of the estuary as a nursery, as many fish do today.
“This glimpse into the early life history of ancient coelacanths raises further questions about the life history of the modern coelacanth, Latimeria – which is known to bear live young, but whether they, too, are clustered in nurseries remains unknown.”
Earliest ‘coelacanth nursery’ unearthed
Dr Rob Gess’s latest discovery of 30 juveniles of a new species of coelacanth from 360 million years ago, has caused a buzz in the scientific world as it pre-dates the oldest find of a nursery of prehistoric coelacanths, in America, by 60 million years.
It is also the first time that any Devonian period coelacanths have ever been found in Africa and adds another reconstructable species to the five already unearthed in North America, Europe, China and Australia.
Although Gess found his first identifiable coelacanth in the mid 90s in shale in the N2 roadworks cuttings near Waterloo Farm, it was not well enough preserved to formally describe.
“When, more recently, I found the new type of specimen with its perfectly preserved skull, I was over the moon.
Gess, who has already collected 550 individual fish fossils and as many fossils of arthropods and plants from the shale said he still had years of work left before he exhausted the pile.
“It will take several more years to describe all the material I have already excavated.
“In addition, I do two days of excavation every week in the rock sheds, so the amount of material to be written up is growing all the time!”
Over the years, Gess has been involved in the description of 15 new fossil species from Waterloo Farm shale and still has at least 15 more left to describe before he can work on new finds.
Africa’s earliest known fossil coelacanth species is described this week in the prestigious Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society by Gess, (who conducted the research as PhD student at the University of the Witwatersrand) and Professor Michael Coates of the University of Chicago.
Gess, now at Grahamstown’s Albany Museum, said the new species – which he named Serenichthys kowiensis – gives important additional information on the early evolution of coelacanths.
“According to evolutionary analysis, it is the Devonian species that most closely resembles the line leading to modern coelacanths.”
Gess has collected more than 30 specimens thus far, and, remarkably, all of these more or less complete coelacanths are juveniles.
“This suggests that serenichthys was using a shallow, waterweed-filled embayment of the estuary as a nursery, as many fish do today.
“This glimpse into the early life history of ancient coelacanths raises further questions about the life history of the modern coelacanth, Latimeria – which is known to bear live young, but whether they, too, are clustered in nurseries remains unknown.”
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