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Documentation of the palaeontological heritage of the Early to Middle Devonian Bokkeveld Group of South Africa has been recorded as far back as the early nineteenth century with the arrival of the first European settlers, merchants and explorers to the Cape region. Anecdotal evidence suggests that indigenous peoples had knowledge of fossils in the Bokkeveld Group from as early as the Middle-to-Late Stone Age. Within the first hundred years of the expansion of the Cape Colony the first geological maps of the Bokkeveld Group were produced alongside the first description of fossils as well as their Devonian age and marine origin. These early investigations provided a foundation for establishing faunal endemism common to South Africa, South America and the Falkland Islands. During the early twentieth century considerable progress was made in the description of fossil fauna of the Bokkeveld Group, most notably of invertebrates and plants. This research demonstrated that invertebrate fossils from the Bokkeveld Group, as well as those from time equivalents in South America and the Falkland Islands, were distinct from the Devonian Period elsewhere (e.g. Europe and North America). The role of fossils from the Bokkeveld Group proved critical in the formal designation and delineation of a broad region of endemism, the Malvinokaffric Realm that persisted at high subpolar-to-polar palaeolatitudes in southwestern Gondwana and extended from South Africa, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Antarctica and the Falkland Islands with possible elements in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and Ghana during the Emsian-Eifelian Stages. In the latter half of the twentieth century developments in understanding the sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Bokkeveld Group lead to the premise that the succession accumulated in a storm-and-wave dominated deltaic palaeoenvironment, and enabled inferences on the palaeoecology of the fossil taxa. During this period detailed revisions of numerous invertebrate and plant taxa were undertaken as well as the first descriptions of fossil fish. Research in the twenty-first century has shown a general decline in palaeontological interest, but developments are currently underway in refining the taxonomy of fossil echinoderms and fish from the Bokkeveld Group as well as understanding the Group's palaeoenvironmental history, geochronology and understanding the decline of the Malvinokaffric Realm in South Africa and its causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cederberg Complex of wilderness and nature reserves is part of the Cape Floristic Region Protected Areas Serial World Heritage Site in South Africa. Although this region is a present-day biodiversity hotspot, fossils and rocks from this region (dating back to the Ordovician-Devonian) suggest that the Cederberg has been an area of immense biodiversity importance for the past 500 million years ago. More recently, archaeological evidence suggests that the Cederberg has been an important place for human habitation for more than 100,000 years. Matjiesrivier Nature Reserve, located at the heart of the Cederberg Complex, has been identified as a place with considerable potential to develop geotourism in this unique area. • The Cederberg is a place of near continuous endemism for the last 500 million years. • Matjiesrivier Nature Reserve is a World Heritage Site in the Cederberg and is the nexus to promote geoheritage in the area. • The Cederberg is a key component of the Cape Floristic Region. • The Cederberg has a rich palaeontological heritage from the Ordovician and Devonian. • The Cederberg has a rich archaeological heritage from the last 100,000 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Devonian palaeontological record of South Africa is essential in understanding plant and animal evolution as well as global palaeobiogeography and palaeoecology at high subpolar-polar (60–90°) southern palaeolatitudes. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, fossils, most notably those of marine invertebrates, from rocks that would later be known as the (? Pragian-Emsian) Rietvlei/Baviaanskloof formations (Table Mountain Group) and the (Emsian-Givetian) Bokkeveld Group have been recognised to be faunally distinct and similar to those found in Emsian-Eifelian (Early-Middle Devonian) successions in Argentina, Antarctica, Bolivia, Brazil, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana and Senegal. This broad region of endemism in southwestern Gondwana was referred to by many iterations, namely 'Flabellite Land', the 'Austral Province', 'Falklandia' and later by the 'Malvinocaffrischen Provinz' or 'Malvinokaffric Realm' as is used currently. Many fossils from the Rietvlei/Baviaanskloof formations and the Bokkeveld Group are important in defining the faunal composition of the Malvinokaffric Realm. The Malvinokaffric Realm is noteworthy in that it comprises a low-diversity fauna with high endemism, namely those of terebratulid, strophomenid and spiriferid brachiopods as well as calmoniid and some homalonotiid trilobites. Conulariids, tentaculitids and hyolithids are abundant and reef-building corals are rare whilst stromatoporoid sponges, conodonts, goniatite ammonoids and graptolites are generally absent. Subsequent research suggests that several gastropods, ostracods, palynomorphs, acritarchs, chtitinozoans and gnathostome fish may also be endemic to this region. Palaeoclimatic and palaeomagnetic indicators suggest that the Malvinokaffric Realm was situated at subpolar-polar regions during the Emsian-Eifelian, persisting at cool temperatures. Given the high palaeolatitudes occupied by southwestern Gondwana during the Devonian Period as well as the relatively complete stratigraphic record of this period in South Africa, continued research into the palaeontology, palaeoenvironments, and palaeoecologies of this key Malvinokaffric locality will continue to ever ingrain the importance of Africa in understanding global palaeobiogeography. • First detailed multi-taxon review of the Malvinokaffric Realm. • First appraisal of the Malvinokaffric Realm in South Africa. • The South African Devonian record continues to be important in understanding global palaeobiogeography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]