Mosiuoa John Nyaphuli (March 12, 1933Government Gazette / Staatskoerant : Legal Notices
volume 665, number 43875, November 6, 2020; page 96 in

Wepener Wepener is a town in the Free State, South Africa, located near the border of Lesotho. History The town is named after Louw Wepener, the leader of the Boers in their war with the Basotho chief Moshoeshoe I in 1865. It was founded in 1867 on t ...

, Free State – July 24, 2020 in

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), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

) was a South African

fossil hunter Fossil collecting (sometimes, in a non-scientific sense, fossil hunting) is the Collecting, collection of fossils for scientific study, hobby, or profit. Fossil collecting, as practiced by amateurs, is the predecessor of modern paleontology a ...

and preparator who worked at the

National Museum, Bloemfontein The National Museum in 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, a ...

. He discovered the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

s for several new fossil species, and was responsible for the majority of the early fossil finds in the

Ecca Group The Ecca Group is the second of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup of geological strata in southern Africa. It mainly follows conformably after the Dwyka Group in some sections, but in some localities overlying unconformably over much ...

;FOSSIL HUNTING BY THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AND THE MAN BEHIND IT
by B.S. Rubidge, in ''Nasionale Museum Nuus /National Museum News'', number 31, October 1986, p. 28-29 as well, he was responsible for several technical advances in fossil preparation. The ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' called him "one of the greatest fossil collectors in South Africa".'Beast face' takes weirdo cake
by Rowan Philips, in the ''

''; published March 27, 2011; retrieved February 8, 2021; via

PressReader PressReader is a digital newspaper distribution and technology company with headquarters in Vancouver, Canada and offices in Dublin, Ireland and Manila, Philippines. PressReader distributes digital versions of over 7,000 newspapers and magazines ...

Early life

Nyaphuli left school after Grade 7, and moved to Bloemfontein in pursuit of employment. From 1962 to 1967, he worked in food preparation for the

South African Defence Force The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence F ...

, after which he served as a messenger at the

University of the Orange Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

until 1973, when he joined the National Museum as a fossil preparator.

Recognition

In 1992, he was unanimously made an honorary life member of the Palaeontological Society of South Africa,Obituary – Mosiuoa John Nyaphuli
in ''National Museum Publications''; published July 27, 2020; retrieved February 8, 2021 and in 2011, he won the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members inter ...

's Morris F. Skinner Award.2011 (Skinner Award) John Nyaphuli
at the

; published 2011; retrieved February 8, 2021, via

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Two species — ''

Australosyodon nyaphuli ''Australosyodon'' is an extinct genus of dinocephalian therapsids from the middle Permian of South Africa. The first fossil was discovered in the 1980s near the village of Prince Albert Road in the Karoo region of South Africa. The genus is ...

'' and '' Patranomodon nyaphulii'' — are named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyaphuli, John South African scientists 1933 births 2020 deaths People from the Free State (province)