Legendary fossil hunter

James Kitching found thousands of important pre-dinosaur fossils from more than 250-million years ago in the Karoo (South Africa) , and also helped prove the Theory of Ccontinental Drift: that Southern Africa was once part of a much larger land mass that included Antarctica, parts of the Americas and Australia.

There was a lot of debate about whether Gondwana Continent (South America, southern Africa and Antarctica) had ever existed. 

So Kitching was recruited to fly down to Antarctica and look for fossils common to both continents. And it was there, on a rocky snowy shelf, that he found the fossilised skeleton of Thrinaxodon, just like the one he had found near Bethulie in the southern Free State province of South Africa.

Historical Period: Early Triassic (250-245 million years ago)

Size and Weight: About 20 inches long and a few pounds

Diet: Meat