Day 6: The Excavator Says Goodbye | DinoDawn Field Notes

Blocks recovered, first site20 to 30

ExcavatorGone for the season

Schools visited2

On day 6 the excavator lifted the last blocks out of the first site, up to the one labeled G2. Then its operator said goodbye and drove away for the last time. For 6 days the machine had done the heavy lifting. Now 20 to 30 blocks lie on the hillside, and the team has to decide which ones are worth carrying home.

They sorted them at a team meeting. Some blocks clearly hold something worth taking to the lab, and the rest still have to prove it. A few are packed with bone. Others hold almost nothing.

The only way to know is to go in after the bones, first with chisels and hammers and then with dental tools, a few grains at a time. The blocks now give up more than osteoderms. Ricardo Araújo circles the richest ones with his camera, photographing them from every side to build 3D models that may show how the bones came to rest. The smaller blocks are already in plaster and nearly ready for the road.

2 smiling team members among pale blocks of rock, some of them draped in strips of burlap — Burlap laid over blocks at the first site, ready for plaster. Photo: Klara Gerken

Several small reddish bones in gray green rock next to a white scale card running from 0 to 8 centimeters — Small long bones in a block at the first site, beside a scale card marked in centimeters. Photo: Klara Gerken

Up at the second site, the fish keep coming. Some are filter feeders and some are predators. So do the bones of marine reptiles: placodonts, and perhaps other kinds too, which would mean more variety here. Some of the new bones may be from limbs. Bruno Camilo found what looks like a humerus, the upper bone of a front limb. Around a big block, the team cut a wide trench to free it.

6 team members crouching and standing over a gray green rock slope under a white tarp — The team gathers over a find under the tarp at the second site. Photo: Dave Finnegan

2 thin reddish fossil bones in gray green rock — Thin bones lie in the greenish layer at the second site. Photo: Leonardo Bonelli

A reddish fossil bone end showing through broken gray green rock — Thin bones lie in the greenish layer at the second site. Photo: Leonardo Bonelli

Next comes the delicate part. The team will trench around these bones, wrap them in plaster jackets and carry them out for the lab, and they may lift the big block too. Meanwhile, others on the team keep walking the hills, scouting layers for a future season.

A gloved hand holding a dental pick against crumbly gray green rock — A dental pick works the brittle layer. Photo: David Isserman

A team member in a cap crouching on the slope, brushing a small fossil piece held in his hand — A dental pick works the brittle layer. Photo: David Isserman

Away from the hills, João Neves, Dave Finnegan and David Isserman took the dig into the classroom at 2 local schools. Students bent over fossils with magnifying glasses and asked about the finds being made in the Algarve and across Portugal.

A man holding up a rock in a classroom, with magnifying glasses, a digital microscope and fossils on a table in front of him — João Neves holds up a fossil in class, with magnifying glasses ready on the table. Photo: David Isserman

A large group of cheering students and adults outside a white school building, 2 of them holding a red and white flag — Students at the first school, with The Explorers Club flag.

A group of smiling students and adults outside a school with red window frames, 2 children holding a red, white and blue flag — Students at the second school, with the same flag. Photo: David Isserman

Tomorrow the bones at the second site go into plaster, and the first site keeps sorting its blocks. The excavator is gone. From here on, the work is chisels, plaster and patience.