André Werner Keyser (8 March 1938,

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

– 15 August 2010, Pretoria), was a South African

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

noted for his discovery of the Drimolen hominid site and of numerous hominid remains. In 1994 he discovered a female '' Paranthropus robustus'' skull, nicknamed ''Eurydice'', the most complete

australopithecine Australopithecina or Hominina is a subtribe in the tribe Hominini. The members of the subtribe are generally ''Australopithecus'' (cladistically including the genera ''Homo'', '' Paranthropus'', and ''Kenyanthropus''), and it typically includ ...

skull ever excavated. In 1997 he found two children’s skulls some 1.5 to 2 million years old. The children were under 3 years old at the time of their death, and were found at the Drimolen site near the Sterkfontein Caves. In the 1930s Robert Broom, acting on a suggestion from a Transvaal Museum lepidopterist, was the first palaeontologist to visit

Gladysvale Cave Gladysvale Cave is a fossil-bearing breccia filled cave located about northeast of the well-known South African hominid-bearing sites of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans and about north-northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is situated within ...

, hoping to find a hominid fossil cave close to Johannesburg. In 1946

Phillip Tobias Phillip Vallentine Tobias (14 October 1925 – 7 June 2012) was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil ...

recovered a baboon fossil from the site. The 1948

Camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

- Peabody expedition from the United States failed to find any hominid remains. The site was then forgotten until 1991 when Lee Berger and Andre Keyser started excavations. They soon found two teeth of Australopithecus africanus, making Gladysvale the first new hominid site in South Africa since the 1948 discovery of

Swartkrans Swartkrans is a fossil-bearing cave designated as a South African National Heritage Site, located about from Johannesburg. It is located in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and is notable for being extremely rich in archaeological ma ...

Robert Broom Robert Broom FRS FRSE (30 November 1866 6 April 1951) was a British- South African doctor and palaeontologist. He qualified as a medical practitioner in 1895 and received his DSc in 1905 from the University of Glasgow. From 1903 to 1910, he ...

. Since then the site has yielded more than a quarter of a million fossils in excavations by teams from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

and Duke University. These fossils include, beside hominids, antelope, extinct wolves, giant zebra and monkeys. Dr Colin Menter from the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a public university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The University of Johannesburg came into existence on 1 January 2005 as the result of a merger between the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), the ...

, commenting on the hominid fossils from Drimolen, stated: “''Discoveries at this site showed us that sex differences in Paranthropus robustus were greater than we had previously thought. While there are some specimens from Drimolen that are just as large and robust as those from other sites like Swartkrans, there is a complete female skull that is distinctly smaller than the other, well-preserved specimens of the species.''”

Personal life

Eldest of three sons of Gabriel Keyser and Adelheid Dorothea Giesekke, André Keyser was married to Josina/Sienie le Roux and lived in Meyerspark, Pretoria. They had two sons and two daughters (Helena, Gawie, Liesel and Andre). He was also a painter, with a strong influence of the nature of South Africa. His death was due to cancer.

References

External links

Image of EurydiceImage of Eurydice and Orpheus lower jaw
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyser, Andre South African paleontologists 1938 births 2010 deaths Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand