|
WEEK 7 |
Text and photographs by Louise
Leakey |
t has been a busy week as usual with
lots of fossils to collect from the field. The field
crew continue to find more beautiful specimens
although there are fewer of them as we have collected
quite a bit from this area now. However, one specimen
proved very puzzling this week. It was a long thin
fibula, in many pieces, and Meave and Nina spent
several afternoons trying to fit it together and work
out what it was. Certain bones of carnivores and
hominids are extraordinarily similar. This fibula
certainly went from being a carnivore to a possible
hominid and back to a carnivore. We compared it with
the fibula of a modern hominid and a modern leopard to
try to decide. It is unusual to find fibulas preserved
as they are so delicate and this beautiful specimen is
almost complete. We have decided now that this has to
be the fibula of a Homotherium, the sabre-tooth
cat again. The fossil carnivore specialist, Dr. Lars
Werdelin, confirmed this when we sent him a picture.
 |
|
Homotherium fibula (top) compared with that of
a modern leopard. Finding such delicate bones in
their entirety is quite rare and this was a
beautiful specimen. |
Arkoi, who is working for us this
field season, is from Sedicho, to the north of Ileret,
close to the Ethiopia and Kenya border. He is a
skilled fisherman, using a long spear and line to
catch fish. He walks quietly in the shallows by the
lake and, with a bit of luck, sends his spear
accurately into a fish. He hit his mark on two
occasions this week, and we had
fresh fish in camp.
This makes a welcome change to our diet of goats that
we buy from the herders to the north of the National
Park. The fish are Nile Perch, endemic to Lake Turkana
and quite huge, sometimes weighing as much, if not
more, as the man who catches them! There are several
other species of fish endemic to lake Turkana
including several species of Tilapia and even a fresh
water puffer fish. It’s very rare to see these as they
live in much deeper water and occasionally are blown
ashore during a storm.
The aircraft was finally in action this week. This is
the second-hand
single engine Cessna 206, that we have
recently acquired to replace the plane we had before.
This was made possible through several grants from the Donner Foundation, Leakey Foundation and National
Geographic. Although there are still things to be done
on it is in the air again and is a much safer aircraft
to have in this part of the world than our old plane.
I flew Nina and George back to Nairobi, as sadly they
have other work to do, and Meave had an appointment to
meet in Tanzania. She made the trip from Turkana all
the way to the Serengeti to spend an evening with a
group of visitors traveling with TCS. She was able to
describe and discuss our work and very much hopes that
some of them may be enthused enough to continue to
follow our progress and one day visit us in this part
of the world!
My return flight was not easy as strong winds and no
rain make it incredibly dusty at the moment and
visibility is poor even at 12000 feet. I flew back
with Njoroge, our wizard mechanic, and with him back
in camp, we have been able to give the cars a
much-needed overhaul and get them on the road again.
Old vehicles need constant attention as you can
imagine and some of our land rovers date back to the
early 1980s, but are still running! He is now going to
help Sibiloi National Park fix some of their vehicles
and get them on the road again, now that they have
badly needed spare parts thanks to the generous
support of Eden Wildlife Trust.
Louise Leakey,
Koobi Fora
March, 2004
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