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DISPATCH 06: More from Il
Naibir camp
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Everyone is in
camp now and the team are finding many fossils. These
include the bones or pieces of bones from fossil monkeys and baboons and also a large number of carnivores. There are
also many isolated teeth which are quite beautiful.
Unfortunately as was expected, there has been significant
damage to the fossils from the exposures closest to the
Il Naibir laga, which is frequented by large numbers of
livestock throughout much of the year, illegally grazing in
the Sibiloi National Park. On this occasion they are not
however present.
A beautifully preserved carnivore mandible, probably
belonging to a hyaena was collected this week from a small
hill rich with additional carnivore and monkey remains. A
sieve was put in here to recover as much of this as
possible. It has had all its teeth knocked out by hundreds
of little goat hooves but otherwise it is mostly intact. As
usual fossils are recorded in the field with GPS fixes using
the hand held computers and the collected specimens are brought into camp
for preparation, photographing and packing in the afternoons, and the specimens and
images are entered daily into the
database on the laptop.
The camp is shaded and peaceful, with fabulous morning
choruses with the calls of vulturine guinea fowls, yellow
necked spur fowls and go- away birds. We have a fat tailed
sheep who was spared the freezer for a few weeks and is
quite a character. He particularly likes the smell and taste
of bread and enjoys a good back scratch under the dining
table, occasionally involving himself in ball games in the
sand river in the evenings with little Seiyia.
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