Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra (1905 – 1975) 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 ...

whose work focused on the

therapsid Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more ...

a, mammal-like reptiles of the Middle ( Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone, ''Tapinocephalus'' Assemblage Zone) and

Late Permian Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

, whose fossil remains are common in the South African Karoo. He was the author of a large number of papers on Therapsids and Pareiasaurs, and described and revised a number of

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Work

In 1927 Boonstra was appointed Assistant Palaeontologist of 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 ...

and promoted to Palaeontologist in 1931. He remained at the museum until his retirement in 1972. He was the sole curator of the museum's Karoo vertebrate fossil collection for 45 years.

Awards

He was awarded the Queen Victoria Scholarship by the University of Stellenbosch and received the Havenga prize for Biology from

Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns The Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (SAAWK) (literally ''South African Academy for Science and Arts'') is a multidisciplinary organization dedicated to promoting science, technology and the arts in Afrikaans, as well as promoting ...

in 1959.

Publications

Volume 64 of the ''Annals of the South African Museum'' (1974) was dedicated to Boonstra. The 88 publications and books he wrote between 1928 and 1969 are listed in it.

References

External links

South African Museum - Dr. Boonstra's Publications
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Brief biography of Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boonstra, Lieuwe Dirk South African paleontologists 1905 births 1975 deaths