34000 Yrs Old But Still Active Termite Mounds Discovered in South Africa

Scientists in South Africa have discovered more than 30,000 years old termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country. They are considered to be the oldest known active termite hills.

Some of the termite mounds found near the Buffels River in Namaqualand were estimated to be 34,000 years old by radiocarbon dating by the researchers from Stellenbosch University.

According to Michele Francis, senior lecturer in the university’s department of soil science who led the study, these termite mounds existed while sabre-toothed big cats and woolly mammoths roamed in other parts of the Earth and large parts  of Europe and Asia were covered in ice.

The oldest inhabited mounds located before this recent finding were discovered in Brazil and are around 4,000 years old.

Termite mounds are a famous feature of the Namaqualand landscape, but no one suspected their age until samples of them were taken to experts in Hungary for radiocarbon dating.