A remarkable new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth’s history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plant-eating mammal ancestor, rose to prominence in the wake of the End-Permian Mass Extinction some 252 million years ago, the most devastating extinction event our planet has ever experienced. While countless species vanished, Lystrosaurus not only survived, but thrived in a world marked by extreme environmental instability, intense heat, and prolonged droughts.

In a study led by researchers from the NRF-DSTI research chair in African Microbiome Innovation at Stellenbosch University (SU), scientists investigated how antimicrobial resistance genes behave in WWTPs and rivers in a large urban city in South Africa. Because of the lack of such studies in Africa, and the potential implications for water reuse, Dr Makumbi and his co-authors conducted a microbiome study to get a sense of what is happening at WWTWs and connected river systems in South Africa.

Mansoura, Egypt — 3/26/2026 — For decades, the early evolution of apes has been reconstructed from a narrow geographic window. Fossils from East Africa—especially Kenya and Uganda—have shaped prevailing ideas about where and when the ancestors of today’s apes first appeared. A new discovery from Egypt now broadens that view, pointing to northern Africa and the Middle East as a more likely center for the origin of the living apes.

University of Cape Town researchers have discovered that the 2023-2024 El Niño triggered the largest sea level surge ever recorded across Africa's marine domains. A rare convergence of climate patterns amplified the event, causing sea levels to rise faster than the global average and placing over 15 million coastal residents at heightened flood risk. The study is published in Communications Earth & Environment.

A 16-year study of nearly 400,000 km of road surveys reveals widespread declines in South Africa’s raptors and other large birds, with half of the species showing significant population losses. The findings highlight urgent conservation concerns and the need for robust, long-term monitoring to protect these ecologically vital predators.

A paper published in the journal Proceedings B of the Royal Society describes the discovery of a new species of magic mushroom – Psilocybe ochraceocentrata – from the grasslands of South Africa and Zimbabwe. So named because of the ochre-yellow colour at the center of the mushroom cap, P. ochraceocentrata last shared a common ancestor with P. cubensis approximately 1.5 million years ago.

Do the bones of all Nile crocodiles have the same number of growth marks as their age? And can such growth rings be counted to accurately gauge the age of these reptiles? Is this also an accurate method to use when trying to “age” dinosaurs and other extinct and extant reptiles? No, not according to a Scientific Reports study by Prof Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan and Dr Maria-Eugenia Pereyra of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. They found that the growth marks in crocodiles’ bones cannot be used as a reliable indicator of age. The two UCT palaeontologists further caution against using it along with derived growth curves to age extinct vertebrates such as dinosaurs. 

A new digital reconstruction of the face of the 3.67‑million‑year‑old Australopithecus fossil, Little Foot, provides new insight into the evolution of the human face. 

The new findings, published in Comptes Rendus Palevol, offer fresh insight into the diversity of the fossil hominin (i.e., extant human and their ancestors and relatives) face across Africa 4-3 million years ago.

A PhD candidate at the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP), University of the Witwatersrand, has been awarded the 2026 South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Institutional Clinician Researcher Development Programme Scholarship to advance research into targeted nanoparticle therapies for glioblastoma — one of the most aggressive and lethal forms of brain cancer.

Michael Gomes, who is simultaneously completing medical training and a PhD, is investigating innovative nanoscale drug delivery systems designed to overcome one of the biggest challenges in brain cancer treatment: the blood–brain barrier. This protective barrier prevents many chemotherapy drugs from reaching tumours at effective concentrations, contributing to poor survival outcomes. Most glioblastoma patients survive only 12 to 18 months after diagnosis.

Gomes’s research compares three nanoparticle platforms — liposomes, polymer-based particles, and polydopamine nanoparticles — to determine which most effectively delivers chemotherapy to brain tumours while limiting systemic toxicity. His work places particular emphasis on polydopamine nanoparticles, a relatively unexplored system inspired by dopamine, a molecule naturally present in the brain.