Mineral

• One of the few Cretaceous age deposits that’s been discovered in Africa is at Botswana’s Orapa Diamond Mine.
• Recently a team I lead discovered two new species of rove beetles preserved in the sediments of the Orapa Diamond Mine.
• Rove beetles are typically identified by their unique short elytra (protective wing cases) which expose the rest of the abdomen.
• Our finds are the first fossil rove beetles ever discovered on the continent and in the southern hemisphere.
• The fossils closely resemble today’s rove beetles, showing how successful they’ve been in adapting to various environments without significant changes to their bodies.

Identifying the fossils

• We found the fossils in lacustrine sediments (deposits that accumulate in lake environments).
• Afristenus orapensis belongs to the stenine rove beetle subgroup while Paleothius mckayi belongs to the subgroup staphylinine.
• The stenine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, France and Myanmar while the staphylinine rove beetle was previously described in Russia, China, Myanmar and England.
• So we scoured research articles about fossils of a similar age that have already been studied elsewhere for comparative purposes.

More to find

• We are currently studying each specimen and preparing academic manuscripts that describe what we’ve found.
• My hope is that more money will be invested in training more palaeoentomologists in South Africa and on the continent more broadly.
• The study of fossil insects and plants is an important way to preserve our beloved continent’s heritage.

Sandiso Mnguni receives funding from GENUS (Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences - UID 86073). He is affiliated with the Sophumelela Youth Development Programme (SYDP).