 This was entirely due to the actions of a well-known Scottish-born physician and paleontologist, Dr Robert Broom.Broom, who had lived in the small town of Pearston between Graaff-Reinet and Somerset East, had been studying therapsid fossils of the Karoo since the early 1900s.During his time living in the Karoo where he ran his medical practice, Broom befriended C. J. M. "Croonie" Kitching, a quantity surveyor from Nieu-Bethesda, and Sidney H. Haughton, a geologist and paleontologist who lived on the farm, Wellwood, close to town.