Dear PSSA members, colleagues, and friends,

The dates for the conference are 8 – 12 September 2024.
So far two circulars have been sent out and are available on the PSSA Website.

In December 2023 a list of accommodation options was sent out with the 2nd circular. This is reattached here. We recommend booking accommodation sooner rather than later as prices will inevitably rise this year. ​

​The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France. This facility is the first-of-a-kind, generating low-emittance, high-energy X-rays (synchrotron light), enabling researchers to 3D image materials and living matter at exceptionally high resolutions. The ESRF allows researchers from member and associate countries to apply for beam time. These applications go through various review committees and are scored. The highest-scoring applications are accepted and allocated beam time shifts (1 shift = 8 hours). The ESRF funds the entire trip to and from the facility and the scanning itself for three users. With South Africa being an associate member of the ESRF, researchers can apply for scanning time at no cost to the researcher or institutes they work at. This gives South African researchers access to the best synchrotron facility in the world with no financial burden. 

​Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Homo are three hominin genera which existed on the African continent during the Plio-Pleistocene. All three genera are represented in Southern Africa (SA) and Eastern Africa (EA), including (among others) A. afarensis (EA), A. africanus (SA) and A. prometheus (SA); P. aethiopicus (EA), P. robustus (SA) and P. boisei (EA); H. habilis (EA), H. rudolfensis (EA), and H. erectus (EA and SA). Phylogenetic relationships between these species are the subject of much debate among palaeoanthropologists, many of whom accept that there are clear boundaries between species, using alpha taxonomy. However, in the context of palaeoecological changes, such boundaries may not always have existed - hence the need for a probabilistic approach such as (for instance) sigma taxonomy. [1,2]

PalNews is an important part of the PSSA. The very first PalNews issue came out in 1977 and over the last 46 years there have been a total of 81 issues of the biannual newsletter. These cover all aspects of palaeontology in southern Africa. From fieldtrips to lab news, from conference attendances to information on the latest research from the community.