When most people think of prehistoric life, they imagine towering dinosaurs or creatures preserved in stone.
Coelacanth/Bruce A.S. Henderson/Wikimedia Commons
Yet some of Earth’s oldest evolutionary lineages never disappeared. They simply kept going. Across southern Africa, travellers can encounter plants and animals whose ancestors shared the planet with dinosaurs or even predated them by hundreds of millions of years.
Often referred to as “living fossils”, these remarkable species provide a window into Earth’s distant past. While evolution has never truly stopped, these organisms have retained many characteristics that closely resemble their ancient ancestors. Visiting them is like stepping into a natural history museum where the exhibits are very much alive.
The coelacanth: the fish that shocked the world
Scientists believed this deep-sea fish had disappeared alongside the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago. Then, in December 1938, museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer examined an unusual catch landed near East London and realised she had discovered something extraordinary. The fish turned out to be a living coelacanth, one of the greatest zoological discoveries of the twentieth century.
Today, coelacanths remain incredibly rare and live in deep underwater caves along parts of the East African coastline, including the waters off Sodwana Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Divers cannot simply visit them, as they inhabit depths beyond recreational diving limits, but their story can be explored through exhibits at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity in Makhanda and by visiting East London, where the remarkable discovery first unfolded. The coelacanth reminds us that the ocean still holds mysteries waiting to be uncovered.
Cycads: older than dinosaurs
Among South Africa’s most extraordinary plants are its cycads. These ancient seed plants first appeared more than 280 million years ago, long before flowering plants evolved and even before dinosaurs dominated the landscape. Today, South Africa is home to dozens of cycad species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Their thick trunks and dramatic crowns of stiff leaves make them look almost prehistoric, and that impression is accurate.
Travellers can see cycads growing naturally in parts of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. Excellent collections are also displayed at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden, where visitors can appreciate their diversity without venturing into remote habitats. Unfortunately, cycads are also among the world’s most threatened plants. Illegal collecting for private gardens has pushed several species towards extinction, making conservation efforts more important than ever. Admiring these ancient survivors is best done in botanical gardens or protected natural habitats where they belong.
Welwitschia: the desert’s botanical marvel
Bernard DUPONT/Wikimedia Commons
Growing across the gravel plains of Namibia’s Namib Desert, this bizarre plant produces only two leaves during its entire life. Those leaves never stop growing. Instead, they split and fray over centuries, creating what looks like a tangled mass spread across the desert floor.
Individual plants can survive for well over 1,000 years, with some estimates suggesting exceptional specimens may be considerably older. Welwitschia has no close living relatives, making it one of the world’s most distinctive and ancient plants. Its ability to survive one of the harshest climates on Earth only adds to its legendary status.
Quiver trees: masters of the ancient desert
Hans Stieglitz/Wikimedia Commons
Standing like silent sentinels across arid landscapes, quiver trees have adapted to life where few other trees can survive. These striking aloes thrive in South Africa’s Northern Cape and neighbouring Namibia, storing water within their thick trunks while reflecting heat through their pale bark. Although not as ancient in origin as cycads, they represent a long evolutionary history of adaptation to southern Africa’s changing climate.
Some of the finest viewing opportunities include the areas around Keimoes and Kenhardt, while the famous Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop in Namibia offers one of the continent’s most photogenic desert landscapes. At sunset, their sculptural forms create unforgettable silhouettes beneath some of Africa’s clearest night skies.
Hidden survivors beneath the forest floor
Not every living fossil is easy to spot. Velvet worms inhabit damp indigenous forests across parts of South Africa, particularly in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Knysna forests. Soft-bodied and secretive, these tiny invertebrates have changed remarkably little over hundreds of millions of years. Their unusual hunting method involves spraying sticky slime to capture prey, a technique that has fascinated evolutionary biologists for decades. Finding one requires patience, careful observation and plenty of luck, making any sighting particularly rewarding.
Living fossils beyond Southern Africa
Some of the world’s best known living fossils are found elsewhere, but they help place South Africa’s ancient species into a global story.
The ginkgo tree, commonly planted in botanical gardens around the world, including South Africa, is the last surviving member of a lineage that once covered much of the Northern Hemisphere.
The chambered nautilus continues to drift through Indo-Pacific waters using a shell design that has changed little over millions of years.
Meanwhile, African lungfish offer another glimpse into evolutionary history. Their ability to breathe air provides scientists with valuable clues about how ancient fish eventually made the transition onto land, paving the way for amphibians, reptiles, mammals and ultimately humans.
Even horseshoe crabs, although absent from South African shores, deserve mention. More closely related to spiders than true crabs, they have survived for over 400 million years and illustrate how some marine lineages have endured dramatic changes in Earth’s oceans. Comparing them with South Africa’s own ancient marine arthropods highlights just how deep the continent’s evolutionary roots extend.
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