Fish with legs? New (well, old) fossils of our first walking ancestors in Africa discovered by Dr Robert Gess

What do building roads and four-legged fish have in common? According to a landmark discovery made by paleontologist Dr Robert Gess, of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown*, way more than you think. SANRAL builds roads in a part of the world that houses some of the most fascinating and extensive natural heritage sites known to mankind.
The agency, during the normal course of its work, has contributed to the body of paleontological knowledge through its support of the discovery and preservation of the fossilised remains of life from a 360-million-year-old estuarine Eastern Cape ecosystem, which was found while repairing and rehabilitating a part of the N2. It all started in 1999, when SANRAL assisted Dr Gess to rescue 30 tons of fossiliferous shale ahead of roadworks at Waterloo Farm, 2km south of Grahamstown. In June this year, announcement of the discovery of the first “fish” from Africa to walk on actual legs made it into the journal Science.
“In South Africa, we have a really good evolutionary history preserved in the rocks, which now adds the emergence of animals with legs, from fish to a well-studied record of the evolution of mammals from reptile-like ancestors and development of the earliest humans. Our fossil heritage is worldrenowned,” said Gess.
So when SANRAL builds, it does so with an awareness of – and great sensitivity to – our evolutionary past. It is this awareness that has led to more than one massive paleontological discovery during what was supposed to be a regular road cutting.
Rob Damhuis, Geotechnologist and Project Manager at SANRAL’s Southern Region, explained: “At SANRAL’s inception in 1998 it became a priority to make the N2 between Grahamstown and the Fish River safer. While we were surveying the geology through which the Waterloo Farm road cutting went, we became aware that the area held elements of great importance to South Africa’s history.
“Construction of the repairs was immediately halted and SANRAL brought in Dr Gess and his team to mine out 30 cubic metres of shale by hand. SANRAL transported the shale to Bathurst, where Dr Gess began to work steadily through it in search of fossils. The results of the excavations were incredible, uncovering thousands of unique fossils of great importance today. So far, the remains of an entire coastal estuarine ecosystem from 360 million years ago has been discovered!”