The Beaufort Series is a geological formation forming part of the Karoo System

Karoo System

The Karoo System or Karoo Sequence, is a geologic system of rock formations covering 1 500 000 square km and extending from the Equator south to the Cape of Good Hope...

 and is rich in synapsid

Synapsid

Synapsids are a group of animals that includes mammals and everything more closely related to mammals than to other living amniotes. They are easily separated from other amniotes by having an opening low in the skull roof behind each eye, leaving a bony arch beneath each, accounting for their name...

 or mammal-like reptile fossils. The Karoo System comprises, from oldest to youngest, Dwyka, Ecca, Beaufort and Stormberg Series. The name is derived from the district of Beaufort West

Beaufort West

Beaufort West is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and forms part of the Beaufort West Local Municipality, with 37 000 inhabitants in 2001....

. The formation reaches a thickness of 6-7 km and extends from the latter half of the Permian

Permian

The PermianThe term "Permian" was introduced into geology in 1841 by Sir Sir R. I. Murchison, president of the Geological Society of London, who identified typical strata in extensive Russian explorations undertaken with Edouard de Verneuil; Murchison asserted in 1841 that he named his "Permian...

 to the early Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...

. It is customarily divided into zones named after prevalent fossil types. From oldest to youngest these are: Tapinocephalus

Tapinocephalus

Tapinocephalus is a genus of large herbivorous dinocephalian that lived during the Middle Permian Period. These stocky, barrel-bodied animals were characterised by a massive bony skull roof and short weak snout...

, Endothiodon

Endothiodon

Endothiodon es an extinct genus of dicynodont....

, Cistecephalus

Cistecephalus

Cistecephalus was a small, specialised, burrowing dicynodont, possibly with habits similar to a modern mole. The head was flattened and wedge-shaped, the body short, and the forelimbs very strong, with similarities in structure to the forelimb of modern burrowing mammals.It was one of the first...

, Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus

Lystrosaurus was a genus of Late Permian and Early Triassic Period dicynodont therapsids, which lived around 250 million years ago in what is now Antarctica, India, and South Africa...

, Procolophon

Procolophon

Procolophon was a genus of lizard-like procolophonid reptiles with at least eight species that persisted through the Permian–Triassic extinction event, but became extinct in the later Triassic....

and Cynognathus

Cynognathus

Cynognathus crateronotus was a meter-long predator of the Early to Middle Triassic. It was among the more mammal-like of the Synapsids, a member of a grouping called Eucynodontia. The genus Cynognathus had an almost worldwide distribution...

.

The Beaufort Series covers the entire Karoo

Karoo

The Karoo is a semi-desert region of South Africa. It has two main sub-regions - the Great Karoo in the north and the Little Karoo in the south. The 'High' Karoo is one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger South African Platform division.-Great Karoo:The Great Karoo has an area of...

, Transkei

Transkei

The Transkei , officially the Republic of Transkei , was a Bantustan—an area set aside for members of a specific ethnicity—and nominal parliamentary democracy in the southeastern region of South Africa...

, Pondoland, eastern Orange Free State

Orange Free State

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...

 and western Natal

Natal, South Africa

Natal is a region in South Africa. It stretches between the Indian Ocean in the south and east, the Drakensberg in the west, and the Lebombo Mountains in the north. The main cities are Pietermaritzburg and Durban...

, while the overlying Stormberg Series covers the entire Lesotho

Lesotho

Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...

and surrounding areas.