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DISPATCH 07: “Dragon toes”
interpreted
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The lorry made
it back to camp safely after four long days on the road from
Nairobi. It was slightly delayed at
Maralal where it got
stuck in the mud during heavy rains and was towed out by a
road work tractor. Another load of drinking water was
brought into camp from Koobi Fora where the desalination
plant is operating. One could dig for drinking water further
upstream in the Il Naibir laga but for a camp of this size
it would require a fully dedicated water collection team.
The team have been finding mysterious looking spiny things
which look as though they could be toes off a dragon! We had
been puzzling over them for a while and finally heard from a
colleague who said they are in fact the spiny ossicles from the legs off giant
tortoises. These were clearly abundant in the region in past
times. If you think of the legs of modern day tortoises,
these are the spiny armour that protect them. The fossil
spiny ossicles that we have been finding here are sometimes
8-10 cm in length. They came off some large tortoises
indeed.
This week Robert also found a piece of hominin maxilla
although it has sadly had the “goat treatment” and is not in
good shape at all. We have put in a large sieve to try to
recover more pieces of this find. Its not too hopeful that
we will get too much more of this however its still a find
and a reason to celebrate with pizzas
from Edwin’s camp kitchen and some beers.
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