Dinosaur hunting

Hi guys

I recently spent the week in the Southern Drakensberg on a field trip. This field trip had two purposes to excavate a new dinosaur fossil while my friend Kelsey and I collected plants for her research. I though I would share a little insight into the science side of my life with my readers.

We were staying near Elliot in beautiful mountainous territory. Its the dry season so the veld was brown but still majestic.

Kelsey and I spent four days driving and walking around the farms collecting plants on which she is going to undertake genetic analyses.

Kelsey collecting plants from a road cutting

Kelsey with some of her plants 

Getting to all her localities involved some rough roads and even climbing to the top of Naude's Neck, the highest pass in South Africa. Kelsey (who is America) kept calling it "Nowdi's" Neck which is now the name I have got stuck in my head!

View from the top of Naude's Neck, the highest pass in South Africa

While we girls were having an adventure in the mountains Jonah and the boys were getting dirty excavating. Below is how the fossil looked like when we got there. On the right of the picture the white dinosaur's femur can be seen.

The site before excavations

Once a fossil site is identified we go in with hammers and chisels and brushes and slowly excavate - we dont want to damage any of the remains below the surface.

Palaeontologists at work

In cases where the rock matrix in which the fossil has been preserved is extremely hard a rock saw is used to help break the mass up. However we try to avoid using this applicance too close to the remains as there is always a danger of cutting through a fossil.

Jonah welding the rock saw, surrounded by a plume of dust - cool picture if I do say so myself!

And below is the site at the end of the excavations. I know it doesnt seem like much progress, but thats palaeontology, slow and steady wins the race. In this case the matrix is very tough. Next time Jonah will take more assistants and heavier equipment and he will get much more out.

After four days of excavating

The local road crew generously donated some of their time and helped by using their 'backhoe' as the americans kept calling it to remove some of the large boulders covering the area over where the front end of the dinosaur is buried, making it safer for us to excavate next time. At the same time they suggested using the machine to pull topsoil and small rocks over the site of protect it.
So our total progress for the excavation was nill! But plans are afoot to return in the spring to finish the job.

All round it was a fun trip, I hope to do many more like it.

Take care of yourselves
Love jet

PS! While I was in the field my supervisor contacted to let me know that my examiners have gotten back to me with their corrections.
The corrections are all minimal, mostly just spelling error and small things like that, which is good. One examiner even recommended a distinction!
I am going down to Cape Town on Friday for a week to try and find somewhere to stay and I was hoping I would be able to register there at the same time. But in order to register I first need to submit the final document of my masters.
So I have been frantically busy trying to get all my corrections done and everything ready in time. Its a neck and neck race to the finish, at this point as there are letters and signatures I need from other people and it depends on how long they take.
I will let you know if I make it! and I will let you know how Cape Town goes.
Cheers