I discovered some of the local archaeological and and other attractions when I spent a couple of months in East London SA on a project a while back.

http://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1304615836l/11297431.jpg

For ichthyologists East London is great because that is where some of the first  first ever modern coelacanth are housed. These can be found at the East London Museum.

http://www.stellenboschwriters.com/jlbcoela.jpg

Coelacanth had been known for many years from fossils.

https://res.cloudinary.com/dmqxvrj5r/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto,w_3000/v1/pathfinda/8643_1426171678-l.jpg


What I didn’t know before going there is that the museum also houses some of the oldest Homo sapiens trace fossil imprints dated at 124 000 years ago.

They were found when some municipal workers took a lunch rest under the roof of a small overhang.

These are negative impressions. The positive impressions having fallen away and disintegrated.

http://www.elmuseum.za.org/interestingFact/images/footprints02.JPG


Below can be seen the fossil footprints child and a bird.

https://bushpigpost.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/footprints_phil-019-1.jpg

I managed to spend some time with the scientist who conducted some of the excavations.

https://elmuseumscience.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/exc2beachkam-008.jpg

The slanted strata you see in the picture is fossilized sea dune layers. The footprints were found in these layers and these layers were dated to be 124 000 years old. After a diligent search no further human foot prints were found. but more layers are exposed as time goes by... so we hope.

What I did manage to add to the picture was I found a number of Middle stone age artifact eroding out of the surf zone in and around the area of the fossil footprints.

Meanwhile back to the coelacanth.
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This is one of the preserved original specimens  on display.

http://www.stayinafrica.com/gallerylive/el_ceolocanth_albumimage.jpg

http://www.openafrica.org/uploads/images/participants/galleries/842-1417778407-01-gallery-500.jpg

A diving expedition was set up to film living Coelacanth's.
They live in extremely deep water and die when brought up to the surface by fishermen and nets, so the divers had to push the limits to find and film them.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jl_txxYQEA

 not bad for a fish supposedly extinct for 60 odd million years!!!