Andrew Geddes Bain

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

Life

In 1820, Bain moved to the Cape Colony and began Graaf Reinet in an occupation as a saddler. The Sixth border war between the British colonial troops and the Xhosa warriors, from 1833 to 1834, he commanded a battalion. It fell on his engineering skills. He then began his service as an assistant engineer at the Royal Engineers who dealt with the construction of military roads in the Cape Colony. His first project led him in 1837 to build the Queens Road, between Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort on the Ecca Pass. Here Bain discovered at the field work in areas affected by road rock layers, fossil remains of small reptiles and fossilized wood, which developed his interest in paleontological explorations. Here in 1845 he succeeded with William Guybon Atherstone, the discovery of an important relic reptiles. This was the first dinosaur Fund ( Paranthodon africanus) in South Africa.

Bain was also famous for the discovery of the first Dicynodontia - fossils in 1838 on the grounds of the farm Mildenhall south of Fort Beaufort. It is mammal -like reptiles that occur in the deposits of the Karoo Basin. In recognition of his contributions was later named a member of this group of reptiles called Dicynodon bainii. This finding has also become known as Blinkwater monster.

He also explored the region in 1846 the Limiet Mountains in the Western Cape and under his leadership there began in 1849, construction work on a mountain pass to the north, which were completed in 1853. This 30 kilometer 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.

From Bain comes first, in 1852, edited, comprehensive geological map of South Africa ( Geological map of South Africa). In 1855, Bain describes the geology of South Africa in the Journal of the Geological Society of London.

In the British Museum is a 1846 handwritten list Bains authored by South African fossils, consisting of 31 plates, kept. A part of his estate is in the archive of the Witwatersrand University of Johannesburg.

Private

Bain married in 1818 Maria Elizabeth von Backstrom. From their marriage seven children were born. The surviving children's names are Thomas Charles John Bain (1830-1893), Agnes Elizabeth Catherine Mary Bain and Jane Geddes Bain.

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