Andrew Geddes Bain

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Andrew Geddes Bain

Andrew Geddes Bain (baptized June 11, 1797 in Thurso , † October 20, 1864 in Cape Town ) was a British geologist of Scottish descent. He is considered the "father" of the geology of South Africa .

Life

In 1820, Bain moved to the Cape Colony and began working as a saddler in Graaf Reinet . In the Sixth Border War between the British colonial troops and the Xhosa warriors, from 1833 to 1834, he commanded a battalion . His engineering skills stood out. He then started his service as an assistant engineer with the Royal Engineers , who were involved in the construction of military roads in the Cape Colony. His first project took him in 1837 to build Queens Road , between Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort over the Ecca Pass . During the field work, Bain discovered fossil remains of small reptiles and petrified woods in the rock layers affected by the road construction , which developed his interest in paleontological explorations. In 1845, together with William Guybon Atherstone , he succeeded in finding an important reptilian relic. This was the first dinosaur ( Paranthodon africanus ) found in South Africa.

Bain also became known through the discovery of the first dicynodontia fossils in 1838 on the site of the Mildenhall farm south of Fort Beaufort. They are mammal-like reptiles found in the deposits of the Karoo Basin . In recognition of his merits, a representative of this reptile group was later named with the name Dicynodon bainii . This find has also come to be known as the Blinkwater Monster .

He also explored the Limiet Mountains region in the Western Cape in 1846 and, under his direction, construction began there in 1849 on a pass road to the north, which was completed in 1853. This approximately 30 km long section of today's regional road R303 is located between Wellington and Ceres .

His work in the field of fossils earned him the reputation of being the founder of paleontological research in South Africa. The first comprehensive geological map of South Africa ( Geological map of South Africa ) , published in 1852, comes from Bain . In 1855, Bain described the geology of South Africa in the journal of the Geological Society of London .

In the British Museum , a handwritten list by Bain's 1846 of South African fossils, consisting of 31 plates, is kept. Part of his estate is in the archives of the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg .

Bain married Maria Elizabeth von Backstrom in 1818. The marriage resulted in seven children. Traditional names of children are Thomas Charles John Bain (1830-1893), Agnes Elizabeth Catherine Maria Bain and Jane Geddes Bain.

Web links

literature

  • Alan Cohen: Mr. Bain And Dr. Atherstone: South Africa's Pioneer Fossil Hunters . In: Earth Sciences History, Vol. 19 (2000) Issue 2, pp. 175-191

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Geological map of South Africa. In: Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2nd series, vol. 7 (1852), pp. 175-192
  2. ↑ copac entry (English)
  3. ↑ copac entry (English)
  4. ↑ Andrew Geddes BAIN Papers (English)
personal data
SURNAME Bain, Andrew Geddes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British geologist of Scottish descent
DATE OF BIRTH baptized June 11, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Thurso
DATE OF DEATH October 20, 1864
Place of death Cape Town