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| Established | 1945; 80 years ago (1945) |
|---|---|
| Location | Johannesburg,South Africa |
| Coordinates | 26°11′35″S28°01′45″E / 26.193°S 28.0291°E /-26.193; 28.0291 |
| Website | www |
TheEvolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) is apaleontological,paleoanthropological andarcheologicalresearch institute operated through the Faculty of Science of theUniversity of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg,South Africa. Previously known as theBernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research (BPI) it was renamed the Evolutionary Studies Institute in 2013 to better showcase the scope of its research.
The Evolutionary Studies Institute was first named the Bernard Price Institute afterBernard Price, anengineer and general manager of theVictoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company who provided steady researchfunding.[1] The institute was set up in 1937 as an institute forgeophysical research, but since has become known for itspaleontological research. The institute's first director wasBasil Schonland. WhenWorld War II began in 1939, theSouth African Defense Force ordered the BPI to contribute to the war effort.Schonland led the development of South Africa's firstradar system during this time.
At the end of the war in 1945, the research focus of the Bernard Price Institute changed topaleontology. This was entirely due to the actions of a well-knownScottish-bornphysician andpaleontologist, DrRobert Broom. Broom, who had lived in the small town ofPearston betweenGraaff-Reinet andSomerset East, had been studyingtherapsidfossils of theKaroo since the early 1900s. During his time living in theKaroo where he ran hismedical practice, Broom befriended C. J. M. "Croonie" Kitching, aquantity surveyor fromNieu-Bethesda, andSidney H. Haughton, ageologist andpaleontologist who lived on the farm, Wellwood, close to town.Haughton regularly invitedBroom to his farm where he housed a personal collection of fossils he had recovered from his property. Kitching and his three sons,James, Ben, and Scheepers, regularly joinedBroom on field trips aroundGraaff-Reinet andNieu-Bethesda collecting fossils. Broom was also close friends withRaymond Dart and had contributed to the discovery and research ofhominin fossils, namely ofAustralopithecus andParanthropus, that had been recovered fromSterkfontein andMakapansgat.[2]
In 1945Broom, who was working at theTransvaal Museum inPretoria at the time, gave apublic lecture at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand. During his lecture,Broom informed all in attendance of the plight of South African fossils. Thousands of fossils were being lost every year in South Africa because there were no museums or places of research adequately equipped to store, categorize, and protect fossils that were recovered from the field.Broom stated that an academic premises dedicated to the endeavor ofpaleontological research was sorely needed in order for the prolific number of fossils collected to be stored correctly, studied effectively and that fossil discoveries of South Africa could be made known to the rest of the world.
One of the attendees of Broom's lecture wasBernard Price. Broom's eloquence and passion for South Africa's fossil discoveries persuaded Price to approach Broom and the university. Price soon provided the start-up capital needed to establish a research institute at the university dedicated to the collection,curation and research of South Africanfossils. It was decided that thegeophysics research lab be moved to the maingeology building on theUniversity of the Witwatersrand campus, and the Bernard Price Institute was subsequently renamed the Bernard Price Institute of Palaeontological Research. Once the BPI was formally set up,Broom recommended that the youngJames Kitching, on his return from military service at the end ofWorld War II, be the fledgling institute's first director. Kitching was signed in as the first member of staff on 26 October 1945.[3]
Within a week of his appointment as Director,Kitching took a train fromJohannesburg back toGraaff-Reinet to embark on his first official field trip for the BPI.Kitching borrowed his widowed mother's Buick sedan which he used as his field vehicle for his field trips aroundGraaff-Reinet andNieu-Bethesda. Within five monthsKitching, with the aid of his younger brothers, had assembled a collection of more than 200fossilspecimens as research material for the Bernard Price Institute, mostly skulls oftherapsidspecies.Price was so thrilled with the success of the institute's first field trip that he doubled his funding propositions for the BPI. This allowed the institute to extend its field collecting activities to includeSterkfontein in the north and also theMakapansgat caves at what was then known as the Northern Transvaal (nowLimpopo Province) ofSouth Africa.
Over the following decades, the academic staff of the Bernard Price Institute led numerous research teams toAntarctica, theAmericas,continental Europe, andRussia. From the 1990s, thehominin fossil-bearing sites were discovered to be far more widespread. Researchers discovered new sites such asGladysvale,Kromdraai, Environs Sites,Malapa, Maropeng, andRising Star Cave. With exception of the Rising Star Cave, these new sites along withSterkfontein andMakapansgat are now part of the greaterCradle of Humankind world heritage site. In addition, archaeology work has been led at sites such asBlombos Cave and the Klipdrift Shelter in association with the institute. A separatehomininfossil vault has also been set up to separately store hominin fossils recovered from the various hominid-bearing fossil sites around the country.
WhenKitching retired in 1990, the Director's post of the Bernard Price Institute was awarded to Professor Bruce Rubidge, the grandson ofSidney H. Haughton. Rubidge held his directorship position until the end of 2016, however, he still works closely with the institute. It is well known in thepaleontology community ofSouth Africa thatHaughton and the Kitchings sparked the same passion for paleontology in Rubidge as a young boy that they had possessed. A brother of Rubidge, who inherited the Wellwood farm, maintains the Karoo fossil collection housed at the farm.
The Evolutionary Studies Institute remains an active research and teaching institution whose small staff and their students remain dedicated to exploring the fossils of theKaroo Basin and the famoushominin fossil-bearing sites - true to the original dreams ofBroom andPrice.[4][5]
The Evolutionary Studies Institute's main research focuses include thepaleontological andsedimentological development of theCarboniferous-Jurassic GreatKaroo Basin,phylogenetic research ofdinosaur species and their relatives, andhominins from thePlio-Pleistocenefossil-bearing deposits.
Palaeontologia Africana is the Evolutionary Studies Institute's in-housescientific journal.
