Untold History of Palaeontology

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Weight 1.0 kg
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ISBN9781776474936 Barcode9781776474936
Overview
This book is about the deep-seated knowledge of palaeosciences among Indigenous people of various African countries. It documents striking cases of awareness of fossils by local populations since the dawn of humankind and up until precolonial times, and how fossils were interpreted back then. Some fossils inspired folklore, tales and legends, whilst others were used for medicine, storytelling, tool making, and aesthetic purposes. In some fascinating cases, fossils were better interpreted by local African people than by contemporary scientists in Europe. Each chapter reports a case of indigenous knowledge from a different part of Africa, organised in chronological order.

This book is about the deep-seated knowledge of palaeosciences among Indigenous people of various African countries. It documents striking cases of awareness of fossils by local populations since the dawn of humankind and up until precolonial times, and how fossils were interpreted back then. Some fossils inspired folklore, tales and legends, whilst others were used for medicine, storytelling, tool making, and aesthetic purposes. In some fascinating cases, fossils were better interpreted by local African people than by contemporary scientists in Europe. Each chapter reports a case of indigenous knowledge from a different part of Africa, organised in chronological order.

Julien Benoit is an Associate Professor in palaeontology at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of Wits University, where he studies the evolution of the mammalian nervous system and that of their ancestors, the Permo-Triassic therapsids. With Drs. Penn-Clarke and Helm, he co-created the field of study of the history of African Indigenous Palaeontology.

Cameron Penn-Clarke is a senior researcher in sedimentology, stratigraphy and palaeontology at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has specialist interests in the evolution of Early-Middle Palaeozoic environments and ecosystems of West Gondwana in addition to brachiopod palaeobiology, palaeobiogeography and Indigenous Palaeontology.

Charles Helm is an ichnologist (a palaeontologist who specialises in tracks and traces) and family physician, with an interest in Indigenous Palaeontology. He is a Research Associate with the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience at Nelson Mandela University, and lives in Canada.

Holder of two Masters degrees in biological sciences, Sophie Vrard is passionate about her work in Nature Conservation. She is also an accomplished artist. In between saving endangered species, she illustrates scientific papers and books.

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Weight 1.0 kg
Dimensions 23 × 16 × 3 cm
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Weight

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