A fish from 65 million years ago, found by a woman in East London
On 21 December 1938, a 31-year-old museum curator saved a fish no one could name. It turned out to be a coelacanth; a fish thought to have vanished some 65 million years ago. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was born in East London on 24 February 1907, and in 1936 she...
Novel praying mantis feeding behaviour reported: They can also snack on snails!
Figure 1. Flag Mantis (Polyspilota aeruginosa) immature feeding on a Brown Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum) in captivity. Photos by Paul Janse van Rensburg. Article contributed by Riaan Stals, South African National Collection of Insects The behaviour and biology of...
Her Name on the Label: the women behind South Africa’s natural science collections
This Women’s Month, the Natural Science Collections Facility is asking South Africa to meet the women behind the country’s collections — and to add the next names to the record. Every specimen in South Africa’s natural science collections carries a...
From Manual to Metrics: NSCF’s Open-Access Framework & What It Offers Local, African and Global Scientific Communities
Written by Shanelle Ribeiro and Shaun Pieterse The NSCF has developed several open-source resources, tools, and practices that contribute to improving standards, facilitating collaboration, and building capacity for South Africa’s natural science collections. These...