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...continued
Fabrice
looked down on a turtle that Mike
had found. Or was it more than
one? Hard to tell. Their were
perhaps a hundred pieces. After
some 15 minutes, Mike had gathered
them all into a collection bag
bound for the camp library.
"Hey
Paul, is this a fit? queried Mike,
who was bent over his pile of
turtle bone on the library's main
working surface-a ping-pong table.
"Yeah, that's the edge,the carapace,
which is the upper half of the
shell. You can see the end of
the rib here, fused onto one of
the plate of the shell," replied
Paul. Other team members had their
faces glued to papers and books
in the libraries collection describing
these long-lived reptiles.
Mike
was hooked. He couldn't tear himself
away when the dinner whistle blew.
After dinner, he was at it again.
Then Fabrice took the night shift,
working by solar lantern. Such
bone puzzles, indeed, are addictive.
Slowly but surely, you create
something amazing out of pieces
that initially have little meaning.
The turtle was coming together
before our eyes.
Fabrice,
unable to pull himself away from
an ancient puzzle, is putting
the last pieces in place by lamp
light.
Turtles
are anatomical wonders, having
achieved in the evolution of their
skeletons something no other reptiles
have ever managed-their shoulder,
hips and limbs are inside their
ribcage! All other backboned animals,
including humans, have it the
other way around-the shoulders,
hips and limbs are outside the
ribcage, which houses only our
soft organs.
Turtles
have expanded the ribcage so even
the tail and head can fit inside.
Each arched dorsal plate forms
the upper side of the shell, called
the carapace, has a rib fused
to its underside.Mike, Fabrice
and David were using such details
to sort out the different shell
parts. Midline plates have a vertebra
fused to their underside. The
turtle puzzlers eventually pieced
together the flat bottom armor,
called the plastron, which took
the form of two X's. The legs
extend out of the shell through
embayments in the plastron.
The
100-piece puzzle now solved, we
marveled at this noble fossil
reptile, realizing that a new
species was at hand. Prospecting
the following day resulted in
the discovery of its flattened,
triangular skull with toothless
jaws. Turtles may appear slow
and not too intelligent. Yet,
they live in almost every environment
today, from the frozen plains
of Canada to the rainforests of
the Amazon, while their cousins
the dinosaurs have long ago gone
extinct.
Small
Crocs
Another armored reptile and survivor
of the dinosaur era surfaced among
the pieces we picked up that day.
"Crocodile" shouted David, holding
a keeled, pock-marked armor plate
in his hand. Unlike turtles, crocodilians
do not fuse their armor plates
(called scutes) to their skeletons
but leave them embedded in the
skin. "I think I found a croc
skeleton over there," Andy sputtered
with excitement. "It's a small
guy."
Long
summer days means extra time to
excavate
an interesting crocodile skeleton.
We
brushed and blew back the powdery
sediment, revealing the bones
of a small crocodile with a total
length no more than 3 feet. We
had been trailing this croc for
days, having found isolated scutes
and sculpted jaw bones. Unlike
living crocodiles that average
between 8-15 feet in length, there
are fossil crocodiles from the
dinosaur era that are smaller
and larger.
Camp
II - Mazongshan
Mazongshan means "horse mane mountain,"
the namesake for the jagged ridge
behind Camp II. We set up our
tents on a basketball court located
on the grounds of the local police
station. Although officially a
police station, it doubles as
a hospital, community center,
general waystation-and now as
our Camp II!
We
set up our library in their rec
room. The courtyard has a well
that taps the cold water beneath
the dry desert floor. Water pumped
from this well keeps a greenhouse
humid, where vegetables are grown
for the dozen or so personnel
living at the station. Like many
homes on the vast grasslands and
deserts of Inner Mongoilia, solar
panels and a wind driven propeller
provide the main source of electrical
power.
The
ger, a lightweight felt-covered
structure,
is the traditional Mongolian home.
By
day, we reach our prospecting
sites using the many tracks etched
into the desert that link individual
Mongolian families. A typical
family lives in a ger (or yurt),
a round felt-lined struture with
one front door. Behind the ger
is a round pen constructed of
wood and used for herding goats
and camels. Traditionally, Mongolians
are nomads that periodically move
their gers, camels and other domesticated
animals. Although many Mongolian
families are now more stationary,
most still prefer to live in gers
in the region of Mazongshan. Mongolian
language and customs are in danger
of being lost.Their population
in Inner Mongolia, less than 15%
of the total population of the
Autonomous Region, their ceremonies,
and their nomadic lifestyle are
becoming more difficult to maintain.
The expedition team is extremely
excited to be invited to attend--as
the only foreign guests--a traditional
Mongolian festival and celebration
that will take place in the desert
near Mazongshan. More on this
shortly!
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