Iconic

Carcharodon carcharias (Great white shark) - Our great white shark which happened to be an albino. Generally, albino sharks don’t grow to this big. The shark was collected from Boknes on 25/03/1996.

Porcupine - It is because of the quills in its body.

Acanthopsis spatularis - Pieter Bester, Hester Steyn and Marinda Koekemoer celebrating an iconic moment in doing fieldwork when they re-discovered Amphiglossa spatularis after 185 year! The first collection after the type collection.

David Allan - This is one of the two most complete and best-preserved Dodo skeletons in the world (the other being housed in the national museum of Mauritius). The full background to our skeleton and its significance can be found in the following monograph: Leon P. A. M. Claessens, Hanneke J. M. Meijer, Julian P. Hume, and Kenneth F. Rijsdijk (editors). 2015. Anatomy of the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus; L. 1758): An Osteological Study of the Thirioux Specimens. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Volume 35 (Suppl. 1): 1-187.

Adansonia digitata–baobab - We all know the distinct outline of a baobab tree on the horizon and are used to seeing the bare, leafless, grey stems. But did you know that these iconic African giants are even more beautiful in December when they are covered in large white flowers?

Acanthopsis tuba, Holotype - collected by H.W.R. Marloth (1855–1931) in August 1925 at Anenous. Anenous (originally known as P/ani P/nous in Nama) was named after a spring in the corner of the kloof and is located 14 km west of Steinkopf. Marloth, a pharmacist, analytical chemist and botanist collected more than 15 000 specimens in South Africa and is best known for his magnificently illustrated Flora of South Africa. The narrow-gauge railway line that transported copper from the mining towns of Nababeep and Okiep via Steinkopf to Port Nolloth used teams of mules to pull railroad trucks along the tracks. The steam engines introduced to the mountainous section of the track in 1871, required a lot of water and often broke down, so, the trusty mules were put back into service, especially during periods of drought. Freight trucks as well as passenger ‘trains’ travelled along this route. Anenous is the site of a former railway station and pieces of porcelain tableware can still be picked up in the veld in the vicinity of the ruins. Acanthopsis tuba differs from all other species of Acanthopsis in having a markedly elongated (>15 mm long) corolla tube. The specific epithet, tuba, refers to the corolla tube; from the Latin tuba, a Roman bronze war trumpet with a long straight tube. This endangered species is only known from three localities between Anenous and Helskloof in the Richtersveld, Northern Cape. This specimen is iconic of an era of exploration and plant collecting in the dry interior of southern Africa; a period of history that has inspired many writers to capture its essence in novels. Marloth was probably a passenger on the narrow gauge train and collected this specimen while the train stopped to replenish water… Couldn’t this be the theme for a locally inspired book or film? A tale of adventure, hardships and discovery; an endeavour culminating in the ultimate legacy that anybody can hope to leave generations to come: specimens offering a snapshot in time for the twenty-first century scientist.

Quagga foal mount collected in the 1850’s near Beaufort West. it’s certainly an iconic specimen one of only a few in the world. It was also the first specimen to provide quagga DNA, due to the foresight of the taxidermist who ‘in true museum style’ kept the bits of tissue he had trimmed when it was remounted. The quagga was long thought to be a species of zebra but later supported by genetic studies to be subspecies of plain zebra.

two specimen skins of the porcupine ( normal and albino)

Pachypodium namaquanum - Referred to as the “Northern men” because of their growth tips always facing north, these iconic trees of the arid parts of Namaqualand, Bushmanland and southern Namibia have been guarding the landscape for centauries – real botanical icons of this region!

Mayfly (Leptophlebiidae, Aprionyx) - To me, it is iconic, representative of the oldest lineage of extant insects, found in pristine rivers of the southern Cape. It is an indicator of good water quality, and could also be sensitive to climate change as it prefers cooler water. They are stunning little creatures. This is the adult stage, which is very short-lived, the nymph lives on stones in the rivers.

Taung Skull - At first scientists in Europe were convinced that the Taung Skull was not a ‘missing link’ between humans and apes. They already had early human fossils from Eurasia. They felt that it would be far more likely that such a ‘missing link’ would come from Europe or Asia. They said the Taung skull belonged to a young ape. This made it seem more human than it really was. They argued that as the Taung Skull grew older it would have looked more and more like an ape. Lastly, they already had a ‘missing link fossil’ called Piltdown Man (which turned out to be a complete hoax). This fossil skull had been found in England. It had a big brain and ape teeth. The Taung Skull had a smallish brain and teeth that were almost human. Only in 1936 when Robert Broom found another adult australopithicine at Sterkfontein did the scientists change their minds and say that Dart might be right. Today scientists believe that he was right. Many other early human and australopithicine fossils have been found in Africa. Scientists have proved that the Piltdown Man fossil was a hoax made up of a chimp jaw and a human skull. So it seems that Africa and perhaps even South Africa is the cradle of human kind, a place where an ape called Australopithecus once walked.