Pandemics have literally plagued the world for millennia and will continue to do so due to the simple concept of evolution. Contemporary viruses reflect evolution ranging from the RNA[1] world to the DNA[2]-protein world. Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on earth and are present everywhere, from our environment to every living being in it. A virus has the ability to combine with another and form a completely new virus to which we have no defense.
Pre-Devonian in origin, the Pseudoscorpiones are one of the oldest extant lineages and over the past 392 Ma have diverged into more than 3400 known species in 26 families. Most are less than five millimetres in length, though they range from less than one millimetre in some Chthoniidae to just over ten millimetres in females of Garypus titanius Beier, 1961. They superficially resemble true scorpions, but lack the elongated tail and sting.
December 11, 2020 marks the centenary of the death of well-known South African writer and women’s rights advocate, Olive Schreiner. She passed away on December 11, 1920 at the relatively young age of 65. Schreiner may be described as a “rebel with many causes” who felt herself severely restricted by the conventions of the Victorian age.
During the Late Carboniferous geological period, just over 300 million years ago, a group of animals called amniotes evolved from amphibians. These animals differed from amphibians in that they laid a different kind of egg, called the amniotic or cleidoic egg. This special egg allowed amniotes to colonize the land as it could survive out of water, allowing these animals to expand into drier areas.
During August 2020 I underwent bird ringing training at the Oliewenhuis gardens. I was trained in all aspects of bird ringing such as setting up nets and traps, removing trapped birds from nets without injuring the bird, taking measurements and recording data, and putting a ring on a bird. Museum ornithologist Dawie de Swardt conducted the training.