Name:
Location:
Date of Fossil Sediments:
Dinosaurs Found:
About Karoo Basin:
The Karoo Basin is way too big to be considered a single, contiguous fossil site--this formation covers almost two-thirds of modern-day South Africa, and is divided into a sequence of formations whose sediments range from the late Permian to the middle Jurassic periods. Although many dinosaurs have been found here--most notably the prosauropod Massospondylus and the weirdly toothed ornithopod Heterodontosaurus--the Karoo is most famous for its array of pre-dinosaur reptiles.
The Karoo is where the famous paleontologist Robert Broom made some of the earliest discoveries of therapsids, or "mammal-like reptiles," and subsequent researchers have unearthed such exotic creatures as Lystrosaurus, Cynognathus, and the walrus-sized Moschops (which, before the rise of the sauropods in the Jurassic period, may have been the largest land animal of its day). In fact, the geological zones of the Karoo Basin are named after their most famous finds: there's a Cynognathus Zone, a Lystrosaurus Zone, and on and on.
As far as true dinosaurs are concerned, the most important parts of the Karoo Basin are the Elliott Formation (dating from the Jurassic period) and the Bushveld Sandstone Formation, where Massospondylus was discovered.
