Cameron Penn-Clarke

University of the Witwatersrand | wits · Evolutionary Studies Institute

The paleobiogeography of Early−Middle Devonian (Pragian−Eifelian) brachiopods from West Gondwana was assessed to determine any potential controls (regional climatic differences or global eustasy) that may have driven bioregionalization. The Pragian−Eifelian interval of West Gondwana was examined because work by previous authors suggested that this...

The sedimentology of the Eifelian–Givetian (Middle Devonian) Bidouw Subgroup in the Clanwilliam Sub-basin of South Africa has been reassessed. Four distinct lithofacies associations are recognized (A–D) and are representative of the deposits of offshore (Os), offshore transition zone to distal lower shoreface (OTZ-dLSF), proximal lower shoreface (p...

Documentation of the palaeontological heritage of the Early to Middle Devonian Bokkeveld Group of South Africa has been recorded as far back as the early nineteenth century with the arrival of the first European settlers, merchants and explorers to the Cape region. Anecdotal evidence suggests that indigenous peoples had knowledge of fossils in the...

Re-evaluation of the sedimentology of the Emsian-Eifelian part of the Bokkeveld Group, the Ceres Subgroup, in the Clanwilliam Sub-basin of South Africa indicates that sedimentation occurred in an array of paleoenvironments that are related to three broad siliciclastic depositional systems in a marginal-to shallow-marine setting. These are: storm-an...

Rhinesuchid temnospondyl amphibians were the dominant predators in most non-marine aquatic ecosystems from the Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic. The large, crocodile-like rhinesuchids are relatively well represented by body fossils in Permian aged rocks of the Beaufort Group in the main Karoo Basin of South Africa, but trace fossils attributed...

Large-bodied temnospondyl amphibians were the dominant predators in non-marine aquatic ecosystems from the Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic. In the Permian-aged lower Beaufort Group of the main Karoo Basin, South Africa, temnospondyls are represented exclusively by the family Rhinesuchidae and are well represented by body fossils, whereas trace...

Outcrops of the Ordovician System in South Africa are extensive; covering significant portions of the Northern, Western and Eastern Cape provinces as part of the Cape Fold Belt as well as the KwaZulu-Natal Province as supracrustal cover overlying the Natal sector of the Palaeoproterozoic Namaqua-Natal metamorphic province. Within the Cape Fold Belt...

This is an abstract detailing the development of a "South-Africancentric" geoheritage mobile application

This is a short popular science article on the Geodyssey geoheritage mobile app that I have been a co-instigator on.

The Karoo Supergroup of South Africa, internationally renowned for its almost continuous Carboniferous to Jurassic record of deposition in a foreland basin setting, hosts an unparalleled record of fossil tetrapods that provides unique insight into terrestrial biodiversity change over this extended period. Understanding of the litho-, bio- and chron...

This is a short popular science article outlining the lessons I have learnt by being a survey geologist in industry.

The Ordovician-Silurian siliciclastic units of the Table Mountain Group (TMG; Cape Supergroup) of the Cape Fold Belt (CFB) are classically considered to signify a period of long-lived sedimentation along the southern margin of southern Africa. Despite its vast, prominent outcrop, meaningful interpretations regarding the provenance of the TMG, based...

Coombs Hill, a new fossil locality in the Witpoort Formation (Witteberg Group) of South Africa, preserves a record of Famennian (Late Devonian) life in Gondwana. Fossil plants collected at Coombs Hill are preliminarily assigned to several classes. Shelly invertebrates include a variety of bivalve mollusc forms, some of which appear to be preserved...

The Early-Middle Devonian saw the development of biogeographic hotspots, especially in the marine realm. These hotspots were distributed as the tropic-subtropic latitude Old World, subtropic-temperate latitude Eastern Americas and subpolar-polar latitude Malvinokaffric realms. Only the Malvinokaffric Realm is a defined biogeographic area. Global eu...

The Tra-Tra Formation is a predominantly argillaceous, shallow marine to paralic sedimentary succession of Eifelian (Middle Devonian) age within the Bokkeveld Group (Cape Supergroup) that crops out extensively within the Cape Fold Belt of South Africa. It comprises three discrete lithofacies associations (termed E-G) which are interpreted as deposi...

New observations from an outcrop of Upper Ordovician Table Mountain Group strata (Matjiesgoedkloof, Western Cape Province, South Africa) have revealed an unexpected ichnofauna that is hosted within diamictites and sandstones that were deposited by a retreating low-latitude (~30°S) ice sheet during the Hirnantian glaciation. The locality provides a...

The Cederberg Complex of wilderness and nature reserves is part of the Cape Floristic Region Protected Areas Serial World Heritage Site in South Africa. Although this region is a present-day biodiversity hotspot, fossils and rocks from this region (dating back to the Ordovician-Devonian) suggest that the Cederberg has been an area of immense biodiv...

Compared with other parts of the world, the study of geomythology in southern Africa, and the associated documentation of non-western awareness of palaeontological and geological phenomena, is in an early phase. We focus on examples of rocks and fossils as items of special interest and curiosity, and we search for evidence of an indigenous palaeont...

This is a popular science article for the Conversation Africa, reporting on current research on the rise and fall of the Malvinokaffric Fauna in South Africa. The link to the article may be found here: https://theconversation.com/rocks-hold-clues-about-how-falling-sea-levels-caused-havoc-400-million-years-ago-105148

Extensive rock cuttings generated in 2015 and 2016 expose a number of fossiliferous shale strata interbedded in quartzites of the Upper Devonian Witpoort Formation (Witteberg Group, Cape Supergroup) on Governor's Kop, near Grahamstown. Intensive palaeontological sampling of the shale horizons recovered an array of Late Devonian fossil plants and in...

A link to video for this this presentation may be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zx8TDq6Xug&t=1079s

The Lower Carboniferous, probably Tournaisian, Floriskraal Formation is part of the Witteberg Group (Cape Supergroup) of South Africa. Together with the underlying Kweekvlei and overlying Waaipoort Formations, it forms part of the Lake Mentz Subgroup. The Floriskraal Formation essentially comprises mud-, silt-and sandstones arranged as two-to-four...