West Coast Fossil Park

West Coast Fossil Park Visit the West Coast Fossil Park close to Langebaan, Western Cape, South Africa. Daily dig tours.

See the fossils of bears, sabre-tooth cats, short-necked giraffes and the many other animals which inhabited the west coast area some 5 million years ago.

20/06/2026

⚠️ DO NOT catch, handle, or capture wild skinks without the correct permits and trained supervision. The skinks in this reel were handled legally for research and conservation purposes. Please admire wildlife responsibly. 🦎

At West Coast Fossil Park, tiny skinks still dart through the landscape much like their ancestors did 5.2 million years ago during the Pliocene. 🌍
Fossil evidence shows that skinks were already part of this ancient ecosystem alongside sabre-toothed cats, short-necked giraffes, and four-tusked elephants. The amazing part? Their descendants are still here today, weaving through the Sandveld. ⏳
But there’s still so much we don’t know. The fossil skinks of the park remain understudied, with huge potential for future research in palaeontology, reptile evolution, climate history, and conservation biology. 🔬📚

Future honours, masters, and PhD students — this is your sign. 👀

Fossil Friday: The Tiny Predator You’ve Probably Never Heard Of 🦖Meet Alnashetri cerropoliciensis, one of the smallest k...
19/06/2026

Fossil Friday: The Tiny Predator You’ve Probably Never Heard Of 🦖
Meet Alnashetri cerropoliciensis, one of the smallest known predatory dinosaurs, discovered in Argentina and living over 100 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.
Unlike the giant dinosaurs most people imagine, Alnashetri was tiny – about the size of a modern crow and likely weighing less than a kilogram. But don’t let its size fool you; it was still an active, fast-moving predator built for agility rather than brute force.
Fossil evidence suggests it belonged to a group of small theropods adapted for speed, likely hunting insects and small prey in its ancient environment.
Discoveries like this highlight just how diverse dinosaurs really were – from towering giants to lightweight hunters that moved quickly through prehistoric landscapes.

🦴 Sometimes the smallest fossils reveal the biggest surprises.

18/06/2026

🦡🐢 This interaction happened in 2026 - but it's been happening for over 5.2 million years!
Ancient relatives of the modern Honey Badger lived in Africa during the Pliocene, where they encountered tortoises very similar to the ones we see today. 🌍
Those early honey badgers were slightly smaller and less powerfully built — but still specialised opportunists with strong jaws, digging claws, and the intelligence to exploit hard-to-access food sources.
For a predator or scavenger, a tortoise is basically a walking food container. Tough to open, but packed with meat once breached.
And that’s the fascinating part: despite millions of years of evolution, climate change, and disappearing species… this exact predator-prey interaction may have barely changed at all. ⏳

Fossil Friday: Construction Unearths a Titan 🏗️Scientists in Brazil have discovered a new species of giant long-necked d...
05/06/2026

Fossil Friday: Construction Unearths a Titan 🏗️

Scientists in Brazil have discovered a new species of giant long-necked dinosaur, Dasosaurus tocantinensis, that lived about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period. The fossil was found beneath a construction site in Maranhão state and includes a remarkably complete skeleton with a femur about 1.5 meters long, suggesting the animal may have reached 20 meters in length!🦕
The most important aspect of the discovery is its evolutionary relationship to a dinosaur found in Spain, Garumbatitan morellensis. Researchers determined that the two species were very closely related, indicating their ancestors likely moved between Europe and South America when the continents were connected.🌍
The study suggests that dinosaurs may have dispersed from Europe through North Africa and into South America between 140 and 120 million years ago, before the Atlantic Ocean fully separated these landmasses. This provides new evidence that ancient land connections allowed animals to migrate across regions that are now divided by oceans.🗺️
Researchers also examined the dinosaur's bone structure and found signs that it was a fully grown adult. Its bones show characteristics of both earlier sauropods and the later titanosaurs, offering clues about how these giant dinosaurs evolved. 🔬🦕

Visit the West Coast Fossil Park to learn more, www.fossilpark.org.za

01/06/2026

Moon rise and sun set from The West Coast Fossil Park.

“It was quite beautiful to see. A lovely, calm evening with birds coming in to roost, including 3 blue cranes.”

Fossil Friday: A sabre-toothed discovery at the West Coast Fossil Park 🦴🗿 Around 5.2 million years ago, the landscape of...
29/05/2026

Fossil Friday: A sabre-toothed discovery at the West Coast Fossil Park 🦴🗿
Around 5.2 million years ago, the landscape of Langebaanweg (now the West Coast Fossil Park) was home to a very different South Africa — a rich mosaic of riverine forests, open grasslands, and thriving wildlife.
Among its most fascinating predators were the sabre-toothed cats, revealed through recent research to include not just known species, but two previously unknown ones:
Lokotunjailurus chinsamyae (slide 1)
Dinofelis werdelini (slide 2)

These discoveries highlight Langebaanweg as one of the most important fossil sites in the world for understanding ancient African ecosystems and the evolution of apex predators. The site preserves an exceptionally diverse snapshot of life during a time of major environmental change, helping scientists reconstruct how climate and habitat shifts shaped the animals that once roamed the West Coast.
Experience this lost world for yourself, at the West Coast Fossil Park – where every fossil tells a story 5.2 million years in the making. 🌍✨

27/05/2026

What if you could time-travel… back 5.2 million years? ⏳
In most places, we’d have no idea what you’d see or hear. Millions of years can completely reshape landscapes, animals – even coastlines.
But at the West Coast Fossil Park, we can paint that picture.
You’re standing in dry sandveld… and suddenly, it’s gone.
A vast lagoon stretches out in front of you, cutting through the land where the Park stands today.
Those white fossil buildings in the distance?
They disappear, replaced by a shallow riverbed. At some point, hundreds of carcasses will wash into that riverbed… and become the fossils we uncover millions of years later.
The lagoon flows towards a coastline much closer than today’s Atlantic. Around it, dense subtropical vegetation – palms, cycads, ferns, and thick grasslands – buzzes with life.
Then you hear it.
Bird calls. Insects.
And a trumpet. 🐘

Don’t forget! There’s a whole world beneath your feet.Our Subterranean Display brings the unseen to life, showcasing the...
25/05/2026

Don’t forget! There’s a whole world beneath your feet.
Our Subterranean Display brings the unseen to life, showcasing the tiny creatures that live below the surface, magnified up to 150 times their actual size.

From insects to burrowing mammals, these small but mighty species play a vital role in the ecosystem, both today and millions of years ago.

Visit us and experience it today.

Fossil Friday: Neanderthals & humans: not rivals, but partners 🤝New research is rewriting the story of our past…At Tinsh...
22/05/2026

Fossil Friday: Neanderthals & humans: not rivals, but partners 🤝New research is rewriting the story of our past…At Tinshemet Cave, scientists found that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals didn’t just coexist – they collaborated.
The key evidence of collaboration comes from the fact that they used the same stone tool shaping techniques, suggesting knowledge was being shared rather than developed in isolation.
They also found repeated use of ochre pigment and structured burial practices, which appear in both groups in very similar ways – indicating shared symbolic or ritual behaviour. In some burials, ochre was deliberately placed with the dead, alongside carefully arranged bodies, pointing to common cultural traditions rather than separate ones.
Taken together, the toolmaking overlap, shared symbolic practices, and close proximity all suggest these groups weren’t simply coexisting – they were interacting, exchanging ideas, and likely learning directly from one another.
💡 Innovation wasn’t driven by isolation – but by connection. These interactions may have shaped the cultural and technological foundations of humanity itself.

Address

R45, Vredenburg, West Coast
Langebaanweg
7375

Opening Hours

Monday 11:00 - 15:00
Tuesday 11:00 - 15:00
Wednesday 11:00 - 15:00
Thursday 23:00 - 15:00
Friday 11:00 - 15:00
Saturday 11:00 - 12:30
Sunday 11:00 - 12:30

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