South Africa Bibliography - Biology
Coelocanths – Primative fishes known only from the fossil record until one was discovered in 1938 near
East London, SA. They were (and are) of great interest to biologists because of their relationship to the
group of fishes that gave rise to terrestrial vertebrate roughly 380 million years ago. Because these fish
live in deep sea habitats, very few have ever been collected (<300) and there is tight regulation on
collecting them to protect the population from over-harvest.
Thompson, K. S. 1991. Living Fossil: The story of the Coelocanth. Hutchinson Radius, London 252 pages.
Heemstra, P. and E. Heemstra. 2004. Coastal Fishes of Southern Africa. National Inquiry Service Center,
south Africa and South Africa Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity. Grahamstown, South Africa. 488 pages.
Weinberg, S. 2001. A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelocanth. Harper Perennial. 220 pages
Introduced species – South Africa has surprisingly few species of fish in the rivers along its southern
coast. As humans have introduced sport fish from around the world (especially from North America) the
native fishes have declined in abundance. Efforts are now being made to study the effects of introduced
species in these ecosystems and to remove exotic species to protect native fishes.
Mooney, H. A. and E. E. Cleland. 2001 the evolutionary impact of invasive species. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. 98:5446-5451.
Rahel, F. J. 2000. Homogenization of fish faunas across the United States. Science 288:854-856.
Kolar, C. S., and D. M. Lodge. 2002. Ecological predictions and risk assessment for alien fishes in North
America. Science 298:1233-1236.
Ellender, B. R., D. J. Woodford, O. L. F. Weyl, and I. G. Cowx. 2015. Managing conflicts arising from
fisheries enhancements based on non-native fishes in southern Africa. Journal of Fish Biology 85:18901906.
Weyl, O. L. F., B. Finlayson, N. D. Impson, D. J. Woodford, and J. Steinkjer. 2014. Threatened endemic
fishes in South Africa’s Cape Floristic Region: A new beginning for the Rondegat River. Fisheries 39:270279.
Human Evolution – South Africa has been the location of many important paleontology digs that have
discovered fossils of pre-human Hominins, the ancestral species that lead to humans.
Hilton-Barber, B. and L. E. Berger. 2002. Field Guide to the Cradle of Humankind. Struik Nature, Cape
Town, ZA. 212 Pages.
Coyne, J. A. 2009. Why Evolution is True. Penguin Books, London. 282 pages.
Dawkins, R. 2004. The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. Mariner Books, Boston.
673 Pages.