Take a look at some of the most important and valuable archaeological treasures in the world that are to be found in South Africa’s Great Karoo. It was through the study of Karoo fossils in the early years of the 20th century that scientific thought was influenced in acknowledging that mammals arose from reptiles. And, as every one of us is a living fossil – containing within our genes the secrets of our ancestors – a journey into the Karoo is in some respects a voyage of self-discovery. World famous paleontologist, Dr. Robert Broom, was greatly excited on seeing one specimen in particular, and that was the Milleretta. The Milleretta was the first well-preserved skull ever discovered of the group of reptiles that may have had as one of its members the ancestor of all mammal-like reptiles. To Broom, this skull was “the seed of the mammal race.” These prehistoric mammal-like reptiles left their mark in other ways too – such as visible footprints, dating about 250 million years ago – found at Sante Sana, also in the Graaf Reneit district.
