Daniel Rossouw Kannemeyer (26 December 1843

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

– 1 January 1925

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

) was a South African medical practitioner, naturalist, archaeologist and palaeontologist, the son of Daniel Gerhardus Kannemeyer and Johanna Susanna Rossouw He is best remembered for his contributions to palaeontology and archaeology although his collections of zoological specimens are greatly valued by the museums which acquired them. Kannemeyer's family settled in Burgersdorp in the Eastern Cape around 1848. Daniel was a pupil at the

South African College The South African College was an educational institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the South African College Schools (SACS). History The process that would lead to the formation of t ...

in Cape Town between 1859 and 1863. Next he qualified in 1871 as Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and was later licensed to practice by the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by Royal charter ...

. During that same period he married Helen Hill of Edinburgh in November 1871. The couple returned to Burgersdorp and Kannemeyer practised there, in

Aliwal North Aliwal North (officially Maletswai) is a town in central South Africa on the banks of the Orange River, Eastern Cape Province. It is a medium-sized commercial centre in the northernmost part of the Eastern Cape. History Sir Harry Smith, then ...

and Smithfield for the next forty years. His wife was locally acclaimed for her soprano voice, while he served on the school board and delivered numerous public lectures on archaeology and natural history. Kannemeyer volunteered to serve in the Ninth Frontier War of 1877-1879, and in the campaigns against

Moorosi Morosi (or Moorosi; died 20 November 1879) was a Baphuthi chief in the wild southern part of Basutoland. He led a revolt against the Cape Colony government in 1879, in defence of his independence south of the Orange River. The British refused to ...

and the

Basuto The Sotho () people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho (), are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. They split into different ethnic groups over time, due to regional conflicts and colonialism, which resulted in the modern Basotho, who ...

in 1879 and 1880, his medical training proving to be invaluable. Kannemeyer was responsible for collecting most of the Free State entomological and herpetological specimens housed in the

South African Museum The Iziko South African Museum is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important A ...

. The records show that he collected from Smithfield between 1908 and 1914. His collection of artefacts from the district defined the Smithfield culture, regarded as a Later Stone Age hunting and gathering culture active between 1300-1700 AD, and on the same level as that of the Mesolithic people of Europe or the modern Kalahari bushmen. The hallmark of their industry was the virtual absence of backed microliths and tiny semicircular scrapers. In 1884 he also presented the Museum with his collection of cynodont fossils from the Stormberg coal beds, and subsequently donated to the

Albany Museum The Albany Museum, South Africa is situated in Grahamstown in South Africa, is affiliated to Rhodes University and dates back to 1855,Chinsamy, Anusuya. (1997). "Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa." ''Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs''. Edited by ...

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

. He collaborated with the naturalist

Roland Trimen Roland Trimen FRS (29 October 1840 in London – 25 July 1916 in London) was a British-South African naturalist, best known for ''South African Butterflies'' (1887–89), a collaborative work with Colonel James Henry Bowker. He was among ...

in studying butterflies, and with the visiting palaeontologist

Harry Seeley Harry Govier Seeley (18 February 1839 – 8 January 1909) was a British paleontologist. Early life Seeley was born in London on 18 February 1839, the second son of Richard Hovill Seeley, a goldsmith, and his second wife Mary Govier. When his fat ...

in 1888/9, loaning Seeley many of his fossil specimens which, as in the case of Alfred Brown, were never returned. He gathered extensive information on Bushman lore and on the medicinal properties of local plants. He was loath to publish any of his findings, preferring to leave that to career palaeontologists. He did publish a ''Note on Locusts as Propagators of Foot and Mouth Disease'' in which he links locusts soiled by saliva from infected cattle with the spread of Foot-and-mouth disease. He is commemorated ''inter alia'' in ''

Kannemeyeria ''Kannemeyeria'' is a genus of dicynodont that lived during the Anisian age of Middle Triassic period in what is now Africa and South America. The generic name is given in honor of Dr. Daniel Rossouw Kannemeyer, the South African fossil collect ...

simocephalus'', '' Trephopoda kannemeyeri'', '' Trematosaurus kannemeyeri'', '' Dresserus kannemeyeri'', '' Trirachodon kannemeyeri'' and '' Gomphognathus kannemeyeri''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kannemeyer, Daniel Rossouw 1843 births 1925 deaths Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh South African paleontologists