Oldest Land-Living Animal from Gondwana Found

Sep. 3, 2013 — A postdoctoral fellow from Wits University has discovered the oldest known land-living animal from Gondwana in a remote part of the Eastern Cape. Dr Robert Gess, from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits, discovered the 350-million-year-old fossilised scorpion from rocks of the Devonian Witteberg Group near Grahamstown. This unique specimen, which is a new species, has been calledGondwanascorpio emzantsiensis.

His discovery has been published in the peer reviewed journal African Invertebrate.

Explaining his discovery, Gess said that early life was confined to the sea and the process of terrestrialisation -- the movement of life onto land -- began during the Silurian Period roughly 420 million years ago. The first wave of life to move out from water onto land consisted of plants, which gradually increased in size and complexity throughout the Devonian Period.

This initial colonisation of land was closely followed by plant and debris-eating invertebrate animals such as primitive insects and millipedes. By the end of the Silurian period about 416 million years ago, predatory invertebrates such as scorpions and spiders were feeding on the earlier colonists of land

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Re-introducing serval to the Eastern Cape

One of Africa's ten indigenous wild cats roaming again in South Africa's Eastern Cape

April 2013. Although widely distributed south of the Sahara, the serval became extinct in the Cape provinces of South Africa over the last century mainly due to habitat loss, hunting and poaching. Recently however private game reserves in the Eastern Cape have begun re-introducing the species in the hopes of contributing to the eventual re-establishment of these wild cats in the region.

10 indigenous wild cats in Africa

The serval is one of ten indigenous wild cats found in Africa. Only three other small wild cats are found in South Africa, namely the caracal, African wild cat, and the black-footed cat. The other three species, the sand cat, golden cat and jungle cat are found in limited areas in north and central Africa. The remaining big cats of Africa, lion, leopard and cheetah, receive much more attention than their smaller cousins.

The serval is a medium sized cat that can weigh up to 20kg. They have particularly long legs that help them to jump up to three metres and they have been seen to catch birds in flight. They also have large ears giving them excellent hearing and enabling them to detect prey moving underground.

Land use changes good for wild cats and predators

The Eastern Cape area was once dominated by stock farming, but recent decades have seen an increase in private game reserves. This is good news predators such as jackal, caracal and even leopard, which are hunted and killed for the threat they pose to livestock. In the case of the serval, it was wiped completely from the area, but as private game reserves grow so does their capacity to re-introduce indigenous wildlife to the area. 

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/serval-eastern-cape.html