Mike Day Anomodont study

Aim/rationale:
The purpose of the loan is to allow me to produce a description of the fossils and compare them with material in the Natural History Museum. I will have access to the synchrotron scans of the fossils but will require access to the actual specimens in order to perform a thorough description. These specimens are crucial to a long-running study led by myself and Bruce Rubidge on the middle Permian Abrahamskraal Formation as they come from an horizon that appears to be yielding a fauna distinct from the two assemblage zones currently known from this unit. The primary descriptions are essential before we can consider the biostratigraphy and higher-level evolutionary phenomena. Our team has spread this descriptive work and several other specimens are being described by South African colleagues or their students but in order to proceed with the study in a reasonable time-frame I have taken responsibility for describing these specimens.