All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
//June
2 06, 2010

South African “Cradle Hominid” Fossil Given a Name

By | June 2nd, 2010|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Educational Activities, Main Page|0 Comments

Australopithecus sediba – Ancient Hominid Fossil Named by South African Student

A name suggested by a seventeen-year old student at St Mary’s school in Waverley, Johannesburg (South Africa), has been chosen by a team of scientists as the official “nick-name” of a 1.95-million-year-old hominid fossil.  Many palaeontologists give names to the specimens that they are working on, whether it be a prehistoric animal, a dinosaur or even a fossil of an ancient hominid.

There is no precedence for doing this as far as we at Everything Dinosaur understand, however, having worked long hours on an individual specimen we can recognise the feeling of attachment that this brings.  Also, when referring to the specimen, it is all very well to use the official specimen nomenclature in literature, but nick-names are so much easier to comprehend when having a conversation.

For example, the Tyrannosaurus rex museum specimen TMP 81.6.1was nick-named “Black Beauty” due to the jet-black colour of the bones, a result of manganese deposited by the surrounding groundwater.

The recently discovered hominid skeleton, representing a new species of Australopithecine (Australopithecus sediba) was given the name “Karabo” in an announcement made yesterday (June 1st), during the seventh annual Standard Bank Past (Palaeontological Science Trust) key lecture by Professor Lee Berger.

Hominid Fossil

It was Professor Berger’s young son, Matthew who made the discovery of this important fossil, appropriate as Matthew was nine at the time and the fossil remains have been identified as being from a 9-13 year-old male.  The fossils were found at a site in Gauteng Province (South Africa), known as the “Cradle of Humankind”.  The site has twelve or so limestone caves that have preserved the remains of ancient animals, plants and perhaps, most importantly of all – ancient hominids.

The name “Karabo”, which means “answer” in a native South African dialect was submitted by 17-year old St Mary’s pupil, Omphemetse Keepile.  It beat more than 15,000 other entries, submitted by students and pupils from schools, colleges and universities from all over South Africa.

A second partial skeleton of Australopithecus sediba has been found, this time scientists believe the bones are from an adult female.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website for models and replicas of ancient hominids: Everything Dinosaur.

1 06, 2010

Young Charlie’s Dinosaur Artwork

By | June 1st, 2010|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Charlie and His Dinosaur Drawings

A few days ago, we sent some of our prehistoric animal images to a customer, who had purchased some dinosaur pyjamas for a young dinosaur fan they knew.  We were informed that Charlie, the dinosaur fan and now the proud owner of a set of dino themed pyjamas had been poorly.  He had been in hospital for quite a while and we hoped that our dinosaur drawing materials would cheer him up on his return home.

Dinosaur Artwork

Charlie’s mum, gave out the drawing materials and he was soon busy colouring them in, great to hear about such a keen, enthusiastic and young dinosaur fan.  Charlie is only three-years of age and below is a snapshot of his dinosaur artwork, we really love the blue Iguanodon.

Charlies’ Dinosaur Artwork

Great dinosaur drawings.

Picture credit: Charlie and Charlie’s Mum

Charlie has done really well to keep his colouring in between the lines, as we have often had to sketch fossils ourselves, these are really impressive, especially for a three-year old.  Well done Charlie.

Charlie’s Iguanodon

Charlie’s Iguanodon.

Picture credit: Charlie and Charlie’s Mum

Charlie’s mum, emailed us, enclosing the pictures of the completed drawings.   She said that Charlie had been quite ill and had been in hospital for a couple of weeks, it was great to see him at home again and busy colouring in the dinosaur pictures that we had sent.

Always a pleasure and our thanks to Charlie for the drawings and to his mum Veronica for sending the images to us.

Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur stocks a huge range of creative, prehistoric animal themed toys and games aimed at budding young palaeontologists. To view the range available from the award-winning company: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

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