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...continued
Base Camp
at Ulansuhai
When we arrived at the base
camp four days ago, we were completely
unprepared for what we found:
six 12 x12 foot heavy canvas tents,
a generator, a freezer, two small
refrigerators, and half a house
to live in. Tan rented part of
a compound near Sohungtu.
Paul and I
have our own tent - complete with
inserted glass windows - as do
the other four American/French
team members. There is a long
room that doubles as the dining
area/Chinese team sleeping quarters.
(The Chinese offered us the inside
room as the more preferable space,
but we opted for the tents.) Every
morning and evening we eat at
a long table indoors by light
powered by the generator.
Two of the heavy tents at Base
Camp barely flap in the wind while
the houseowner's goats huddle
against the cold and dusty windstorm.
A small room
has been converted into the library.
Not only is it an ideal, dust-free
space to work on fossils and pour
over scientific papers or geology
maps, it is also a perfect place
for the website set-up. Our computers
are powered off five car batteries
that get recharged by the generator.
A cable through a hole in the
wall leads outside to the satellite
antenna.
The tents
are wired with electricity, too.
Light bulbs hang from each tent
and since the generator runs from
7 in the morning until 11 at night,
it is easy for people to read,
write, or wash - with hot water
from enormous thermoses. The Chinese
support crew even has a television
in their tent. Most nights a rowdy
game of mahjong plays in the warm
room adjacent to the kitchen.
The kitchen,
under the direction of the ever-cheerful
Gao - sees constant activity.
This morning, as does every morning,
an enormous hot breakfast appeared
- eggs, soup, fried doughnuts,
cucumber salad, hot milk for instant
coffee and tea.
Garlic,
tofu, cucumber, eggs, and diced
mutton await the skillful hand
of Gao, who prepares three hot
meals a day for the Chinese-American
Dinosaur Expedition team.
After experiencing
the wind and cold in the Sahara
desert, trying to cook for a team
of 18 in the wind on an exposed
stove, and everyone washing their
dishes in cold water, all of the
American team feels like we're
on some kind of fossil-hunting
vacation. Convenience comes with
a price, however. The entourage
surrounding this expedition make
it unwieldy - and perhaps impossible
- to move easily. Over the next
week, as we continue to pursue
the seemingly endless outcrop
close to the camp, we'll also
be wondering what will happen
if the surrounding area doesn't
produce bone to last the two month
expedition….
4/24
11:01 am
Field Day 3, Prospecting Stop
2 North of Camp
Paul
holds the find: a recent vulture
skull in good condition. As anatomists,
the team is eager to find specimens
of recent animals - as well as
fossils - while prospecting. The
prize we're all keeping an eye
out for: a bactrain camel skull.
Paul comes
back with a piece of petrified
wood. Dave has a recent rabbit
skull. Just a few teeth are missing.
I have four articulated tail vertebrae
of a recent mammal - probably
a goat. Andy has nothing. Mike
has a half-inch long scrap of
fossil bone, worn, rounded and
eroded. At least it is bone. After
lunch we will explore a site Tan
describes as preserving "a lot
of bone." The Chinese team is
already there, pushing back the
hillside.
4/25
Base Camp, Ulansuhai
Field Day 4
11:00pm
Rained this
morning. We just have not had
luck with the weather.
Yesterday
was the first Chinese-American
cooperative site work at the site
described as "preserving a lot
of bone." We arrived just before
lunch after a morning of fruitless
prospecting.
Fierce
mahjong games are played nightly
in
the warm room adjacent to Gao's
kitchen.
The hill had
been pulled back by the Chinese
support crew - all of whom work
at the Center in Hohhot but are
not professional paleontologists
- under the direction of Zhang
Xiao Hong. By the time we got
there bone was exposed - including
part of a hand of a new small
theropod - articulated and beautiful.
We ate lunch and jumped in.
Working in
a pit together was a challenge
for both sides. In addition to
the language barrier, the teams
use different techniques - they
use big tools (like chisels and
hammers) where we use small ones
(like awls); they don't brush
down their site, whereas we keep
the mantra "a clean site is a
happy site;" they don't use hardener
on newly-exposed bone and we do;
they don't stop and glue bone
back in place when it gets broken
in the pit and we do. They don't
map their discoveries; we do.
When Paul
began to make a map and sketch
in each of the bones as they were
discovered, a skeleton began to
emerge - a theropod! By the end
of the day today we had found
a nearly complete hand, an articulated
tail, two complete feet as well
as a series of vertebrae and ribs.
The size of the animal and the
fact that many of the vertebrae
are disarticulated suggest that
this was a juvenile. Very possibly
this is a new animal. We'd like
to find more of it in the next
few days.
Dave
and Paul carefully pick away at
the small carnivore bones embedded
in the red and green Cretaceous
mudstone.
Without the
map we would not have been able
to realize the orientation (direction)
of the bones or make any predictions
about where bones might be. We
are hoping the map, along with
teaching by example, will have
an impact on some of the field
techniques of the Chinese support
crew.
We are all
wondering now how much more bone
is preserved at our first site,
and especially what the paleoenvironment
(ancient environment) was that
preserved these bones. There has
been so little bone elsewhere
- and nothing articulated - that
some special event must have taken
place to preserve the bone here.
Over the next few days Dave and
Fabrice will closely examine the
geology and sediments of the site
to try to put a story together
of what happened at this place
120-some-odd million years ago...
Gabrielle
Lyon
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