Stories: South Africa

Stories connected to South Africa.

• A lovebird with unusually long legs.Fossils of Agapornis longipes show wings similar in size to small living lovebirds, but leg bones comparable…
• This barnacle feeds when the current is strong.The rose barnacle catches plankton with feathery limbs. It extends them to feed only when the current is stro…
• No scientific record for decades. The South African rabbit was found again.Scientists recorded no riverine rabbits from 1947 to 1979, and the species was thought extinct. It was later…
• The muscles fossilized. The limbs did not.Keurbos fossils from roughly 445-million-year-old rocks in South Africa preserve internal anatomy unusually w…
• This rock hare had ten listed subspecies. Taxonomists now recognize none.Jameson's red rock hare lives across southern Africa. Ten subspecies were listed in 1971; by 2005 that had fa…
• One African ginger has a traditional role as protection from lightning.Among Zulu people in South Africa, African ginger has been used as protection against lightning and snake bit…
• In this throwing game, overshooting sends the score to zeroIn South African jukskei, players throw wooden implements at a peg in a sandpit. Knocking it over scores thre…
• Buried leaves admit sunlight through translucent topsMuch of a Lithops leaf remains below ground. A translucent upper surface, called a leaf window, lets light en…
• Tomato preserves have a long printed historyTomato jam is a preserve made from tomatoes and sugar. An American recipe was published in 1840. Some sandwic…
• The footwear supplies part of the dance’s soundSouth African gumboot dance uses rubber boots with stamping movement. Bells may be attached to ring as the da…
• A dung beetle can orient using the Milky WayResearch on the African nocturnal dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus found that it can use the Milky Way’s bright…
• An armadillo lizard curls into a defended shapeSouth Africa’s armadillo girdled lizard curls up and holds its tail in its mouth when threatened. Thick back…
• Bunny chow puts curry inside hollowed breadBunny chow originated in Durban, South Africa. A hollowed loaf of white bread holds curry. Despite the Englis…
• Desert rain frogs develop into froglets in their eggsThe desert rain frog of Namibia and South Africa lays eggs in a burrow. They hatch into froglets without a fr…
• The flower imitates an injured beeSouthern Africa’s Ceropegia sandersonii has umbrella-shaped flowers. It attracts certain flies by imitating t…
• The spiders were known as fossils firstPelican spiders have elongated jaws and neck-like structures and prey on other spiders. European amber fossil…
• The railway tested its baboon assistantIn 1881, South African railwayman James Wide bought Jack, a baboon, and trained him to operate signals under…
• The navy enlisted a dog to solve his train-fare problemJust Nuisance, a Great Dane in Simon’s Town, South Africa, followed sailors onto trains. When the railway obj…