page_title: Molteno Formation
section_title: Paleontology
hierarchical_section_title: Molteno Formation / Paleontology
caption_attribution_description: English: Ginkgo dissecta. A 5cm wide leaf with typical 4 lobed structuring. Illustrated in Mustoe 2002 as SR 96-09-01. Ypresian, 49 million years old, "Boot Hill", Klondike Mountain Formation, Republic, Washington, USA. Stonerose Interpretive Center Collection # SR 96-08-01
context_page_description: The Molteno Formation is a geological formation found in several localities in Lesotho and South Africa. It lies mainly south of Maseru, near Burgersdorp, Aliwal North, Dordrecht, Molteno, and Elliot. It extends as far north as Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. The formation's localities lie along the Drakensberg Mountains in Kwazulu-Natal, and near Ladybrand in the Free State of South Africa. The Molteno Formation is the lowermost of the three formations in the Stormberg Group of the greater Karoo Supergroup. The Molteno Formation represents the initial phase of preserved sedimentation of the Stormberg Group.
context_section_description: Local and international paleobotanists and entomologists revere the Molteno Formation for its richly diverse plant and insect fossils. The Molteno Formation fossils include 204 plant species and 333 insect species, making it one of the richest Triassic-age plant and insect assemblages ever discovered. Entomologists consider the insect fauna particularly important, because well-preserved fossil remains of insects are very rare.
  The plant and insect fossils had unique ecological co-associations, and occupied distinct habitats. The dominant fossil flora is associated with seven recognized habitat types. The first two habitats include arboreal species of Dicroidium, an extinct genus of seed fern that grew in either lush, riparian forests or more temperate woodlands. Herbaceous forms of Dicroidium are also found but did not dominate. Nineteen species of Dicroidium alone have been recovered from the Molteno Formation.
  The next habitat is also temperate woodland, but a different seed fern species dominates it: Sphernobaiera. Another habitat contains thickets of the conifer species Heidiphyllum. Only two other species of conifer are known from the Molteno Formation. Finally, there are Equisetum (horsetail) marshes, comprising 21 species in five genera, and Ginkgophytopsis fern meadows.
  The seven habitat types contain various cycad species. Cycads were as diverse as the Equisetum but appear to have been far less common, as only a few specimens have been recovered. Lycopods, bryophytes, Ginkgoales, and 50 species of fern have also been found, as well as associated plant frutifications, organs, and pollens. Fossil leaf impressions and other soft vegetative material of these species appear commonly in the low-energy mudstone-rich depositional environments. The vegetative material occurs near to where the plants had originally grown. On the other hand, floods often swept woody material far away from its original habitat. Petrified wood fragments, cones, and other woody material predominantly lie in the high-energy depositional environments dominated by the coarser sandstones.
  The Molteno Formation's insects are considered its most important fossils because of their high diversity. The insect fossils include 333 species and 117 genera. Cockroaches are the most commonly found fossil insect. However, beetles are the most rich in species, with 161 species documented. Other insect fossils include dragonflies, dragonfly aquatic nymphs, and clam shrimp species. Insect and other invertebrate trace fossils have been found in the fine sandstones and mudstone deposits.
  Dinosaur trackways have been found in one locality, however, no vertebrate remains have yet been yielded from the Molteno Formation.
caption: Ginkgo fossil similar to the fossil ginkgo species found in the Molteno Formation
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