An interesting aspect to the Karoo is the fossils that have been found there. The area around Nieu-Bethesda in particular has yielded the most comprehensive evidence of the life on earth that pre-dated the emergence of mammals and dinosaurs.
Some of this is displayed in the Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre, which also offers ‘fossil safaris’ to the Nieu-Bethesda fossil beds.
There have been five major extinctions in the history of planet Earth, which divide the various ‘periods’ of natural history. A mass extinction that occurred at the end of the Permian period wiped 90% of life in the oceans and 70% of life on land, and the best known evidence of this cataclysm is found at the foot of the Lootsberg Pass in the Sneeuberg Mountains near Nieu-Bethesda.
The Kitching Fossil Centre exhibits display animal models and information on life on the supercontinent Pangea 253 million years ago – 50 million years before the emergence of dinosaurs and long before there were flowers, grasses, birds and mammals.
Getting there: The Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre is situated in Nieu-Bethesda
| More info on the town of Nieu-Bethesda | More info on the Karoo Heartland area |
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