Discovery of 450 Million Years Old
'Missing Link'

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And the Ancient Fossil's Name Was Nelson

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DISCOVERY OF 450 MILLION YEARS OLD 'MISSING LINK'

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Aldridge, R., Gabbott, S.E., Whittle, R., and Purnell, M.

Press Release

University of Leicester scientist in discovery of the oldest fish in Africa

A 15-year search for fossils in Africa has led to the discovery of eight fish specimens that are 450 million years old – 50 million years older than any previous fish fossil on the continent and amongst the oldest in the world.

Professor Richard Aldridge, of the Department of Geology at the University of Leicester, who co-led the scientific expedition, says the fossil discovery is among the most remarkable and exciting ever to be found on the continent. He said:

‘These exciting fossils help to fill in a ‘missing link' in the evolutionary history of the very early fishes. They are new to science, and we have yet to describe them and to give them a scientific name.'

A fossil of a fish before fish had any skeleton at all. Picture: University of Leicester

Scientists working on fossils in the Cedarberg Mountains around Clanwilliam, South Africa, unearthed the ancient remains of forms that represent the evolutionary stage before the fishes had any skeleton at all.

The scientific team, led by Professor Aldridge of the University of Leicester and Dr Hannes Theron of the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, has been working on these deposits for fifteen years and many remarkable fossils have been recovered.

Professor Aldridge said:

The first, incomplete, specimen was found in 1994, just as the first elections in the new South Africa were taking place, and we nicknamed the fossil ‘Nelson' in honour of the newly-elected President. In the eleven years since then no more specimens were found, until this year when the team, amazingly, recovered seven additional specimens.

Dr Theron provided further background: ‘These fishes come from a time in the remote past when Africa was in an ice age, and before any animals had colonised the land. They are preserved where they lived in a shallow sea fed by melt waters from the receding ice sheets.'

And the Ancient Fossil's Name Was Nelson
By Henritte Geldenhuys, Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 17/04/05

The fossil of Africa's oldest fish - dating back to an early Ice Age when fish had neither bones nor teeth, has been found in the Cederberg in the Western Cape.

The 450 million-year-old fossil was nicknamed Nelson by the scientists who first found parts of the ancient remains in 1994 when former President Nelson Mandela was voted into office.

The team from the universities of Leicester in Britain and Stellenbosch did not realise the magnitude of their find at the time.

Co-leader of the team, Professor Dick Aldridge of the Department of Geology at the University of Leicester, said they had been unable to scientifically describe the fish at the time.

The fossil is 80 million years younger than the world's oldest fish fossil, which was found in southwest China in 1999.

Aldridge's partner at the University of Stellenbosch, Dr Hannes Theron, said the discovery had filled a gap for the team.

The team has unearthed seven fossils of the fish - the oldest known of the Anaspids group at a site close to Clanwilliam and Great Krakadouw.

"It's worse than the London buses - you wait for two hours and then suddenly three come along together. We waited for 11 years and, suddenly, we found seven.

"They're so primitive that they're difficult to understand. They existed in the Hirnantian Ice Age 450 million years ago. They are totally new to science and we have yet to describe them and to give them a scientific name, " said Aldridge.

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