Waterloo Farm lagerstätte

This is largely due to the fact that fossils in the Witpoort Formation generally occur in black anaerobically deposited metashale that rapidly degrades near surface and is therefore rarely seen in natural outcrop.

[5] This involved excavation of extensive road cuttings through hills and spurs of the Rietberg and utilisation of the resultant rubble to build viaducts across the intervening valleys.

[5] At a braai (barbeque) held by Roy Lubke one afternoon, a colleague Dr Mark Aken wandered off to the top of the cutting and peered down the slope.

[5] In 1991 Fiona Taylor, an honours student of Dr Hiller, conducted a short study on the geological context of the deposit, and also published a preliminary note on the fossils, including some of those from Gess’ collection.

During a short combined excavation by Gess and Taylor, more material was found including remains of large armour-plated (placoderm) fish, later identified as Africa’s only known species of Bothriolepis.

[9] Exceptional soft tissue preservation at Waterloo Farm is unique for a Famennian estuary and allows for reconstruction of an entire estuarine ecosystem,[7] grading from brackish to more marine conditions and including delicate waterweeds,[11] invertebrates[12] and diverse vertebrates.

[7] Witpoort Formation black shales within the Eastern Cape often exhibit cyclical changes in composition, which likely reflect (potentially seasonal) fluctuations in water salinity.

[14] Witpoort Formation sediments were deeply buried due to continued basinal subsidence through the Carboniferous, and were subsequently metamorphosed during the massive Permian aged Cape Fold Belt orogenesis.

Decades of research has revealed the most important Late Devonian fossil site from what was the southern portion of Gondwanan region incorporating present-day sub-Saharan Africa, South America and western Antarctica.

[16] Because the original fine black mud was often very low in oxygen, plants and animals rapidly buried in it sometimes left behind impressions of their soft parts.

Land plants that grew nearby are also preserved, from the remains of small undergrowth species to fronds from the earliest types of trees.