The West Coast Fossil Park at Langebaanweg is a five million year old fossil bed that was discovered in the floor of an open cast phosphate mine in the 1960s. Since then, researchers at the Iziko: South African Museum have amassed over one million vertebrate fossils from controlled excavations, surface collecting and bulk sampling in different parts of the mine. These fossils have achieved international acclaim by scientists for their superb preservation, abundance and richness in diversity to the extent that this locality is now widely regarded as possibly the most important Early Pliocene terrestrial fossil occurrence in the world.
