Day 7: Thousands of Osteoderms, and Then a Tooth

MediaRTP television

BlocksInto plaster

Season endsOctober 26

The day before, the excavator said goodbye for the last time. Goodbyes in the field rarely stick. On day 7 it came back, this time to undo its own work, smoothing over the first site and putting the hillside back the way the team found it.

While it worked, the team went through the blocks one by one. Each block was lowered to the bone bed, photographed from every side for a 3D model, and only then wrapped in plaster. The blocks of highest interest are now jacketed for the lab.

Lowering the blocks paid off. Strange marine reptile bones turned up, and so did many teeth. They come from many kinds of animals, from fish to several types of marine reptiles. Osteoderms still outnumber everything else.

This layer is a numbers game. You sort through thousands of osteoderms, and then a tooth turns up from an animal no one has described from the Triassic of the Algarve.
Miguel Marx, field team

A reddish brown fossil bone set in smooth gray green rock — A bone shows in a cleaned block. Its owner is not yet known. Photo: Ricardo Araújo

Fingers holding a split piece of pale rock, a tiny dark bone visible on each side of the break — A bone shows in a cleaned block. Its owner is not yet known. Photo: Ricardo Araújo

A smiling man in a dark cap pointing at a fossil in a large gray green block below a banded rock face — Lars Finskud points out finds in the rock. Photo: David Isserman

Several thin reddish fossil bones scattered across broken gray green rock — Lars Finskud points out finds in the rock. Photo: David Isserman

A team member in glasses holding a jar and touching a fine brush to a tiny fossil in a gray green block — Marco Turcato brushes on Paraloid, a clear consolidant that keeps a small fossil from crumbling. Photo: Dave Finnegan

Rock hammers, dental picks, brushes, bottles of consolidant and leather gloves laid out on a pale block — Marco Turcato brushes on Paraloid, a clear consolidant that keeps a small fossil from crumbling. Photo: Dave Finnegan

At the second site, the day began the way they all do there: coffee in the village first, the hill second.

A white tarp shading team members on a steep red and gray hillside below trees and a blue sky — The dig at the second site, high on a red hillside under its tarp. Photo: Lars Finskud

The dig also drew a television crew. RTP followed the team around, and Helena Figueiras interviewed Victor Carvalho on the hillside. Ricardo Araújo told the cameras why the site matters for science and for protecting Portugal’s natural heritage.

A man in a checked shirt gesturing as he talks into an RTP microphone, with a cameraman filming — Ricardo Araújo gives RTP the short version of 230 million years. Photo: Lars Finskud

João Neves, David Isserman and Dave Finnegan visited another school, where the students plainly had a blast.

A man in a cap gesturing as he talks into an RTP microphone held by a journalist, with a cameraman filming and a team member watching — Victor Carvalho speaks to Helena Figueiras of RTP. Photo: Filippo Bertozzo

A hand holding a stack of round DinoDawn Expedition stickers — Victor Carvalho speaks to Helena Figueiras of RTP. Photo: Filippo Bertozzo

Not every discovery was a fossil. Luís Domingos crawled into a historical stone well near the dig, for science, presumably.

The warmest welcome of the day came from Baltazar, a donkey at a restaurant near the dig. He inspected every visitor at the fence and approved them all.

A man in a bush hat kneeling inside a narrow stone well entrance capped with a flat slab — Luís Domingos inside an old stone well near the dig. Photo: Ricardo Araújo

A dark brown donkey with big ears leaning its white muzzle over a wooden fence — Luís Domingos inside an old stone well near the dig. Photo: Ricardo Araújo

A bearded man in a sun hat giving a thumbs up on a ridge, with a gnarled tree and blue sky behind him — Filippo Bertozzo reports from the top of the site: life is good. Photo: Lars Finskud

At day’s end the team gathered on the hill for a photo, about as dusty as the blocks.

About 20 smiling team members sitting and standing on a rocky slope, 2 holding a red, white and blue flag — The team at the end of day 7, with The Explorers Club flag.

The season ends on October 26, and the work has turned from digging to packing. The rock is out. Now it has to get home.