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Expedition September-October 2003 - Getting Ready To
be part of the 2003 Campaign,
click here |
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Ischigualasto Provincial Park, northern Argentina—If you wanted to put
serious money on where you might find fossils of both the very first
dinosaurs and mammals, these colorful desert badlands would be your best
bet. This remote valley’s bizarre eroded formations and soaring cliffs
harbor the only unbroken record yet discovered that spans the entire
Triassic period, when dinosaurs first appeared—the start of 160 million
years of world domination. During this dramatic period in geological
history, mammals made their more modest debut, and therapsids (rather
clumsy, mammal-like reptiles) met their end. We’re still living in the
wake of these events. |
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But how and why did dinosaurs come to rule the world? Why did mammals play second fiddle to dinosaurs for millions of years? With the help of Earthwatch volunteers, palaeontologists Dr. Oscar Alcober, Ricardo Martinez, and Guillermo Heredia (all of Universidad Nacional de San Juan and Museo de Ciencias Naturales) are unearthing the answers to these questions. Their finds here have exceeded all expectations. They’ve chiseled out specimens of Eoraptor (“dawn raptor,” one of the earliest dinosaurs), some Herrerasaurus skeletons (another early dinosaur), and the first known infant rhynchosaurs. So critical is Ischigualasto to our understanding of reptile and mammal evolution that it has been recognized as a World Heritage Site. Working against the backdrop of a geological formation dubbed the “Valley of the Moon,” you’ll prospect rock formations for fossils. Many of these lie right on the surface, while others will require your arduous chiseling. You’ll excavate and map the finds, wrap specimens in plaster, screen-wash sediments, catalogue plentiful bones, and map geological features. “Maybe this will be the year we find the oldest mammal,” writes Alcober. “It’s only a 2-centimeter skull in 64,000 hectares of sediment.” |
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To be part of the 2003 Campaign, click here |
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