Not much activity on this blog but lots in the lab. We’ve been very busy….
The Niger Sauropod project is nearly at an end! We’ve fully prepared all the bones that were wrapped in plaster jackets, and have moved onto the ‘float bags’. ‘Float’ is the term given to the fossils which are found loose on the surface, rather than being buried in the rock. We had a wealth of float material to work through, but most of this is done now, with just two large bags remaining (simply labelled ‘bones’).
In addition, we’ve also had an 11th hour request from the researcher who plans to study this material. He’s asked us to keep a sample of the matrix for dating. The age of the rock formation that our dinosaur was found in has been in question for a while; some papers have it as being mid Jurassic while others cite it as being towards the end of the early Cretaceous. This is a huge age range- hopefully a rock sample from the area will be able to reveal the answer. We’re scraping together what little rock we have left to provide a matrix sample that will be radiometrically dated. I just hope we have enough...
Kieran Miles is not great at keeping blogs up to date.
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