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Preliminaries to excavating the croc skull.  MORE IMAGES >>

DISPATCH 05: Crocodile excavation and lorry heads to Nairobi

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As soon as the field camp was up and running and the field crew were busy prospecting, the lorry was able to depart for Nairobi to collect more fuel for the season as well as other heavy equipment and food that we could not get onto the first trip. Louise returned to Nairobi in the aircraft to supervise this second loading and to collect Dr. Fred Spoor who will be here for the rest of the season.

Meanwhile Robert and Steven with the volunteer students started the excavation of the large crocodile skull, Rymasuchus lloydii. This specimen was found last year about to tumble down a steep slope so it was important to extract this fairly urgently.

It is a specimen in beautiful condition, skull with mandible and some pieces of the skeleton too which had previously fallen into the gully. The skull measures some 120 cm in length and 60 cm wide, which if you know that a crocodile’s body is seven times the length of its head made this one a fairly good size.

They set about digging away the hillside behind the skull so that they could get clear access from all sides and dig around it. They used some heavy tools to clear the over burden and then fine picks to excavate closer to the fossil and eventually leaving it standing cleanly on a pedestal. The specimen was ready for plastering plastering which provides protection to the specimen when it is lifted and transported. It is going to take a few strong men and women to carry this out now. There are two other crocodiles still to be collected from near by but these are not as vulnerable and so can be done another year.
 

 

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