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5 unusual facts about Andrew Geddes Bain


Andrew Bain

Andrew Geddes Bain (1797–1864), South African geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer

Andrew Geddes Bain

The Colonial Secretary, the Colonial Treasurer, Charles Davidson Bell, the Surveyor-General and Sir Thomas Maclear, her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape, were among the pallbearers.

This occupation created an interest in geology, inspired in 1837 by a copy of Lyell's Elements of Geology.

He was friendly with William Guybon Atherstone, who was also a keen geologist and fossil collector and who was present at the discovery of Paranthodon africanus Broom at the farm Dassieklip on the Bushmans River, about half-way between Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth.

Bain discovered many fossil remains, including the herbivorous mammal-like reptile dicynodon Oudenodon bainii Owen, which was excavated from the Karoo Beds on the farm Mildenhall south of Fort Beaufort and described by Sir Richard Owen.



see also