Heuweltjie

=Heuweltjie=

Heuweltjies are fossil termite mounds ocurring widely in the south-western Cape of South Africa. Heuweltjies can sometimes be recognised as large mounds above or near the surface of the landscpe. There are two conflicting interpretations as to the origins of heuweltjies, the one view maintaining that heuweltjies were built by the harvester termite Microhodotermes viator while other researchers maintain that heuweltjies were built by a now possibly extinct termite species [1] . The earliest radiocarbon dates on heuweltjies date to about 30,000 B.P.

References

[1] Midgley, J. J. et al. Heuweltjie age and vegetation change based on δ¹³C and ¹⁴C analyses.