Fossil beetles found in a Botswana diamond mine help us to reconstruct the distant past
Retrieved on:
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
One of the few Cretaceous age deposits that’s been discovered in Africa is at Botswana’s Orapa Diamond Mine.
Key Points:
- One of the few Cretaceous age deposits that’s been discovered in Africa is at Botswana’s Orapa Diamond Mine.
- Recently a team I lead discovered two new species of rove beetles preserved in the sediments of the Orapa Diamond Mine.
- Rove beetles are typically identified by their unique short elytra (protective wing cases) which expose the rest of the abdomen.
- Our finds are the first fossil rove beetles ever discovered on the continent and in the southern hemisphere.
- The fossils closely resemble today’s rove beetles, showing how successful they’ve been in adapting to various environments without significant changes to their bodies.
Identifying the fossils
- We found the fossils in lacustrine sediments (deposits that accumulate in lake environments).
- Afristenus orapensis belongs to the stenine rove beetle subgroup while Paleothius mckayi belongs to the subgroup staphylinine.
- The stenine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, France and Myanmar while the staphylinine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, China, Myanmar and England.
- So we scoured research articles about fossils of a similar age that have already been studied elsewhere for comparative purposes.
More to find
- We are currently studying each specimen and preparing academic manuscripts that describe what we’ve found.
- My hope is that more money will be invested in training more palaeoentomologists in South Africa and on the continent more broadly.
- The study of fossil insects and plants is an important way to preserve our beloved continent’s heritage.
Sandiso Mnguni receives funding from GENUS (Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences - UID 86073). He is affiliated with the Sophumelela Youth Development Programme (SYDP).