The Albany Museum offers festival-goers a rich, multidisciplinary experience at the intersection of science, heritage, history, and storytelling.
Join Dr Rob Gess for an immersive palaeontology experience that invites audiences to journey 360 million years into the past, exploring South Africa’s fossil heritage in engaging and interactive ways. Discover all about the Waterloo Farm fossil site on the outskirts of Makhanda, which has become internationally renowned as the most completely preserved latest Devonian estuary in the world. Learn about Africa’s earliest coelacanths, tetrapod creatures that represent the great transition from fish to four-legged animals, strange armour plated fish and much more.
The lecture is followed by live fossil-revealing rock-splitting demonstrations, bringing the thrill of discovery to life.
Free science-themed worksheets and an exciting art competition inspired by the ancient Devonian ecosystem will be available to spark curiosity and creativity among young festival goers.
Production Credits
Lecturer: Dr Rob Gess
About the Artists
Dr Rob Gess
Dr Rob Gess, a research associate of the Albany Museum, is the lead researcher on the world-renowned (360 million year old) Waterloo Farm site outside Makhanda - from which he has, over decades, collected and identified more than 3000 specimens. With a background in Zoology, Botany and Geology he completed his MSc on Waterloo Farm under the mentorship of Dr Norton Hiller and Dr Jaques van Heerden and a PhD on aspects of its vertebrate taxonomy at Wits University under the mentorship of Prof Mike Coates of the University of Chicago and Prof Bruce Rubidge of Wits. He is passionate about his research including aspects relating to evolution, ecology and biogeography. His research is funded by the Millennium Trust and GENUS (the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences.
- Venue: Old Priests' House
- Location: Beaufort street
- Ticket price: ZAR 30.00
- Programme type: Albany Museums
- Genre: ArtTalk
- Duration: 60 minutes
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Ages:
ALL AGES
