Friday, 12 August 2011

Count Arthur learns about Evolution in South Africa

Count Arthur spent the first week of his African adventure in South Africa and spent some time visiting the Cradle of Humankind. This is a collection of sites where archeaologists (and paleoanthropologists (very posh word)) have discovered the very earliest remains of our ancestors that are many thousands of years old.

Count Arthur visited a museum at Maropeng where he learned how the Earth was evolved. Mrs Conway tried to explain to Count Arthur (and Shona and Sean) about the different processes and types of rock but all managed to escape and were really interested instead in the explanations of evolution and how man evolved from apes to the people we are today.





Count Arthur learned how people had evolved from crouching to standing, how diets had changed from being herbivores to omnivores and how we know this because of the shape of out teeth. Count Arthur vagually remembered something about the job of each of our teeth from way back when he was in Year 3 but now thinks he is an expert on this and he knows all about how each tooth has a different job for different types of food.

He also learned how the shape of the head changed and how this affected human brains and how we learn today. It was very ineresting.

But.... on going outside, into the Magaliesburg valley and bright sunshine Count Arthur froze in his tracks.... he was not a happy llama at all and had to be carried back to the car as he was too scared to walk any further.....


 Luckily, Count Arthur didn't see any snakes on this day.....

Will Count Arthur stay snake free?? Will Count Arthur get trampled on by elephants?? Will Count Arthur survive in the Namib desert.....