| Beaufort Group mudstones and sandstones form the foothills of the
Drakensberg Escarpment. The red, green and purple coloured mudstones which
characterise this group were deposited in a steadily drying swampland.
The rocks were deposited by large, northward-flowing, meandering
rivers in which sand accumulated. These were flanked by extensive floodplains
where periodic floods deposited mud.
These 250 million year old rocks record the largest known extinction
event in which approximately 95% of known species died out.  Lystrosaurus |
 Lystrosaurus skull,
KwaZulu-Natal |
In Gondwana, the pig-sized
mammal-like reptile Lystrosaurus was one of the few
survivors. It sheltered in burrows and is a common
fossil in rocks from Antarctica, India and southern
Africa.
The discovery of Lystrosaurus in
rocks in Antarctica in the early 1970s provided another
important piece of evidence linking the southern
continents and the idea of moving continents.  Distribution of Lystrosaurus
and Glossoperis fossils |