Research institute in South Africa
The
Evolutionary Studies Institute
(ESI) is a
paleontological
,
paleoanthropological
and
archeological
research
institute operated through the Faculty of Science of the
University of the Witwatersrand
,
Johannesburg
,
South Africa
. Previously known as the
Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research
(BPI) it was renamed the Evolutionary Studies Institute in 2013 to better showcase the scope of its research.
Current premises of the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
History
[
edit
]
The Evolutionary Studies Institute was first named the Bernard Price Institute after
Bernard Price
, an
engineer
and general manager of the
Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company
who provided steady research
funding
.
[1]
The institute was set up in 1937 as an institute for
geophysical
research, but since has become known for its
paleontological
research. The institute's first director was
Basil Schonland
. When
World War II
began in 1939, the
South African Defense Force
ordered the BPI to contribute to the war effort.
Schonland
led the development of South Africa's first
radar
system during this time.
At the end of the war in 1945, the research focus of the Bernard Price Institute changed to
paleontology
. This was entirely due to the actions of a well-known
Scottish
-born
physician
and
paleontologist
, Dr
Robert Broom
. Broom, who had lived in the small town of
Pearston
between
Graaff-Reinet
and
Somerset East
, had been studying
therapsid
fossils
of the
Karoo
since the early 1900s. During his time living in the
Karoo
where he ran his
medical practice
, Broom befriended C. J. M. "Croonie" Kitching, a
quantity surveyor
from
Nieu-Bethesda
, and
Sidney H. Haughton
, a
geologist
and
paleontologist
who lived on the farm, Wellwood, close to town.
Haughton
regularly invited
Broom
to his farm where he housed a personal collection of fossils he had recovered from his property. Kitching and his three sons,
James
, Ben, and Scheepers, regularly joined
Broom
on field trips around
Graaff-Reinet
and
Nieu-Bethesda
collecting fossils. Broom was also close friends with
Raymond Dart
and had contributed to the discovery and research of
hominin
fossils, namely of
Australopithecus
and
Paranthropus
, that had been recovered from
Sterkfontein
and
Makapansgat
.
[2]
In 1945
Broom
, who was working at the
Transvaal Museum
in
Pretoria
at the time, gave a
public lecture
at the
University of the Witwatersrand
. During his lecture,
Broom
informed all in attendance of the plight of South African fossils. Thousands of fossils were being lost every year in South Africa because there were no museums or places of research adequately equipped to store, categorize, and protect fossils that were recovered from the field.
Broom
stated that an academic premises dedicated to the endeavor of
paleontological
research was sorely needed in order for the prolific number of fossils collected to be stored correctly, studied effectively and that fossil discoveries of South Africa could be made known to the rest of the world.
One of the attendees of Broom's lecture was
Bernard Price
. Broom's eloquence and passion for South Africa's fossil discoveries persuaded Price to approach Broom and the university. Price soon provided the start-up capital needed to establish a research institute at the university dedicated to the collection,
curation
and research of South African
fossils
. It was decided that the
geophysics
research lab be moved to the main
geology
building on the
University of the Witwatersrand
campus, and the Bernard Price Institute was subsequently renamed the Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontological Research. Once the BPI was formally set up,
Broom
recommended that the young
James Kitching
, on his return from military service at the end of
World War II
, be the fledgling institute's first Director. Kitching was signed in as the first member of staff on 26 October 1945.
[3]
Within a week of his appointment as Director,
Kitching
took a train from
Johannesburg
back to
Graaff-Reinet
to embark on his first official field trip for the BPI.
Kitching
borrowed his widowed mother's Buick sedan which he used as his field vehicle for his field trips around
Graaff-Reinet
and
Nieu-Bethesda
. Within five months
Kitching
, with the aid of his younger brothers, had assembled a collection of more than 200
fossil
specimens
as research material for the Bernard Price Institute, mostly skulls of
therapsid
species
.
Price
was so thrilled with the success of the institute's first field trip that he doubled his funding propositions for the BPI. This allowed the institute to extend its field collecting activities to include
Sterkfontein
in the north and also the
Makapansgat
caves at what was then known as the Northern Transvaal (now
Limpopo
Province) of
South Africa
.
Over the following decades, the academic staff of the Bernard Price Institute led numerous research teams to
Antarctica
, the
Americas
,
continental Europe
, and
Russia
. From the 1990s, the
hominin
fossil-bearing sites were discovered to be far more widespread. Researchers discovered new sites such as
Gladysvale
,
Kromdraai
, Environs Sites,
Malapa
, Maropeng, and
Rising Star Cave
. With exception of the Rising Star Cave, these new sites along with
Sterkfontein
and
Makapansgat
are now part of the greater
Cradle of Humankind
world heritage site. In addition, archaeology work has been led at sites such as
Blombos Cave
and the Klipdrift Shelter in association with the institute. A separate
hominin
fossil
vault has also been set up to separately store hominin fossils recovered from the various hominid-bearing fossil sites around the country.
When
Kitching
retired in 1990, the Director's post of the Bernard Price Institute was awarded to Professor Bruce Rubidge, the grandson of
Sidney H. Haughton
. Rubidge held his directorship position until the end of 2016, however, he still works closely with the institute. It is well known in the
paleontology
community of
South Africa
that
Haughton
and the Kitchings sparked the same passion for paleontology in Rubidge as a young boy that they had possessed. A brother of Rubidge, who inherited the Wellwood farm, maintains the Karoo fossil collection housed at the farm.
The Evolutionary Studies Institute remains an active research and teaching institution whose small staff and their students remain dedicated to exploring the fossils of the
Karoo Basin
and the famous
hominin
fossil-bearing sites - true to the original dreams of
Broom
and
Price
.
[4]
[5]
Research
[
edit
]
The Evolutionary Studies Institute's main research focuses include the
paleontological
and
sedimentological
development of the
Carboniferous
-
Jurassic
Great
Karoo Basin
,
phylogenetic
research of
dinosaur
species and their relatives, and
hominins
from the
Plio-Pleistocene
fossil
-bearing deposits.
Current staff
[
edit
]
- Prof.
Marion Bamford
- Present Director of the ESI and
Palaeobotantist
- Prof. Jonah Choiniere - Research Professor and Head of Karoo Palaeontology.
- Prof.
Lee Rogers Berger
- Research Professor and Head of
Palaeoanthropology
.
- Dr. Bernhard Zipfel - University Curator
Palaeoanthropologist
- Dr. Julien Benoit -
Karoo
Palaeontologist
- Sifelani Jirah - Collections Manager
- Dr. Kudakwashe Jakata - micro-CT Scanning Manager
- Prof. Christopher Henshilwood - SARCHI Chair,
Archaeologist
and Director of
Blombos Cave
and Klipdrift
excavations
- Dr. Christine Steininger - Project Manager of DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeosciences. Palaeobiologist.
- Prof. Bruce Rubidge - Past Director of ESI, currently Director of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeosciences. Karoo Palaeontologist.
Journal
[
edit
]
Palaeontologia Africana
is the Evolutionary Studies Institute's in-house
scientific journal
.
References
[
edit
]
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