Recently a peculiar dung beetle was collected in the southern Namib Desert, Namibia. It resembles members of two other unusual southwest African endemic genera Byrrhidium Harold and Namakwanus Scholtz & Howden but has a suite of characters that indicate generic uniqueness although probable relatedness to the others. Since Byrrhidium and Namakwanus are currently placed in the tribe Canthonini, the group traditionally considered to be the most ancient and basal of the ball-rolling dung beetles (Hanski & Cambefort 1991), the obvious placement of the new genus would be there too. However, the Canthonini are doubtfully onophyletic (Scholtz & Howden 1987). To compound the matter, many of the African canthonine genera are monotypic and probably represent relictual elements of otherwise extinct lineages. Although most African canthonines are restricted to the temperate regions of southern Africa and the eastern highlands of central and south-centralAfrica, a number of unusual, and mostly monotypic genera occur along the west coast of southern Africa (Fig. 10). These are possibly relicts of post-Miocene milder climatic intervals that have interrupted otherwise hyperaridity along the coastal strip (Pickford & Senut 1999). The new genus probably falls into the same category.