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Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa

Fossil Bryozoa in South Africa is understudied and has received little attention, despite the country's very rich geological and fossil heritage conservation. Published literature regarding bryozoan fossils from South Africa comprise of four papers with the most recent being a little over two decade...

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Main Author: Duma, Nothando
Other Authors: Gammage, Louise
Format: Thesis
Language:Eng
Published: Department of Biological Sciences 2024
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access_status_str Open Access
author Duma, Nothando
author2 Gammage, Louise
author_browse Duma, Nothando
Gammage, Louise
author_facet Gammage, Louise
Duma, Nothando
author_sort Duma, Nothando
collection Thesis
description Fossil Bryozoa in South Africa is understudied and has received little attention, despite the country's very rich geological and fossil heritage conservation. Published literature regarding bryozoan fossils from South Africa comprise of four papers with the most recent being a little over two decades old. The upper and lower Needs Camp quarries in the Igoda Formation, situated about 20 km northwest of East London, is of great scientific importance, necessitating that the sites be preserved for the purposes of research. The Needs Camp fossils include corals, foraminifera, bivalves etc. and date the deposits to the Late Cretaceous. Gaps in the fossil record hamper efforts to understand important geological events and palaeoenvironmental conditions. This study aims to examine and identify some bryozoans from the Needs Camp fossil deposits lodged in the marine invertebrate collections of the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town. The approach will be a combination of traditional morphological methods and cutting-edge scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technology. Limestones were dissolved by water, the fragments and fossils extracted from the stone were sieved and placed in an ultrasonic bath. These were left to dry then later examined under a light microscope, after they were separated into broad categories according to their colony form and examined using the SEM. In total, 14 species were identified from this study, of which ten were identified to genus-level. Genera reported for the first time in South Africa from this study, include Supercytis, Onychocella, Aechmella, Ogiva, Gastropella, Chiplonkarina, Pithodella, Wilbertopora, Hoplocheilina, Tremogasterina and Bountyella. Keywords: Bryozoa, fossils, Needs Camp, Late Cretaceous, scanning electron microscopy
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:08.525Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Department of Biological Sciences
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39411 Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa Duma, Nothando Gammage, Louise Biological Sciences Fossil Bryozoa in South Africa is understudied and has received little attention, despite the country's very rich geological and fossil heritage conservation. Published literature regarding bryozoan fossils from South Africa comprise of four papers with the most recent being a little over two decades old. The upper and lower Needs Camp quarries in the Igoda Formation, situated about 20 km northwest of East London, is of great scientific importance, necessitating that the sites be preserved for the purposes of research. The Needs Camp fossils include corals, foraminifera, bivalves etc. and date the deposits to the Late Cretaceous. Gaps in the fossil record hamper efforts to understand important geological events and palaeoenvironmental conditions. This study aims to examine and identify some bryozoans from the Needs Camp fossil deposits lodged in the marine invertebrate collections of the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town. The approach will be a combination of traditional morphological methods and cutting-edge scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technology. Limestones were dissolved by water, the fragments and fossils extracted from the stone were sieved and placed in an ultrasonic bath. These were left to dry then later examined under a light microscope, after they were separated into broad categories according to their colony form and examined using the SEM. In total, 14 species were identified from this study, of which ten were identified to genus-level. Genera reported for the first time in South Africa from this study, include Supercytis, Onychocella, Aechmella, Ogiva, Gastropella, Chiplonkarina, Pithodella, Wilbertopora, Hoplocheilina, Tremogasterina and Bountyella. Keywords: Bryozoa, fossils, Needs Camp, Late Cretaceous, scanning electron microscopy 2024-04-18T12:54:12Z 2024-04-18T12:54:12Z 2023 2024-04-18T12:30:40Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39411 Eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Duma, Nothando
Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
title_full Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
title_fullStr Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
title_short Cretaceous bryozoan fossils from Needs Camp, South Africa
title_sort cretaceous bryozoan fossils from needs camp south africa
topic Biological Sciences
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39411
work_keys_str_mv AT dumanothando cretaceousbryozoanfossilsfromneedscampsouthafrica