I learned about the Karoo, and indeed the Gorgons, by a book of the same name by the deeply awesome Peter Ward. His introduction to what life and fieldwork are like in the arid, inhospitable ancestral home of the Gorgons in South Africa made me laugh out loud. It is a highly enjoyable read. The Great Karoo was formed in a vast inland basin 320 million years ago, at a time when the part of Gondwana which would eventually become Africa lay over the South Pole.
The Karoo records a wonderful time in our evolutionary history when the world was inhabited by interesting amphibians and mammal-like reptiles — including the apex predators of the day, the Gorgons.
The link below will take you to the Fossil Huntress Podcast where you can travel back in time to visit the Great Karoo with me. Here's the link: https://anchor.fm/.../The-Great-Karoo-of-South-Africa...
Photo: National Geographic Society
