Friday 5
th June
On Friday we went back to the fossil site. We found a lot more ichthyosaur bones and vertebrae and lots of fish mash. It was also very hot there was lots of flies and a bit later in the day there were some cows.
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| This is a vertebra. |
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| This is Dad fossicking. |
Mum's note:
Today we decided to return to the council quarry to see if we could find anything else interesting around the same site as yesterday's fossils. We bought some palaeontology hammers in town before we went out to the quarry to help us move the rock layers.
When we started moving rock layers in earnest we started finding many more vertebrae and phalanges. All of the vertebrae were degraded, but most of the phalanges were solid. We also started finding bits of rib and other bones, but they were all very fragile.
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| Two more ichthyosaur vertebrae. |
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| Vertebrae with pieces of rib. |
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| More ichthyosaur ribs, |
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| Isabel and Caleb brushing off the site to look for bones. |
We moved a lot of rock today. Thinking we might be a bit sore tomorrow. Also regretting that we didn't buy gloves - Paul and I have very dry hands after a day of sifting through limestone and clay.
What an amazing adventure you are all having. This is a very special discovery!
ReplyDeleteWe read that ichthyosaur can grow to as long as 16metres! How long/big was the one that you found? Yr2/3
ReplyDeleteI don't know but Dad says this typ grows up to 7metres but ours probably grew 5metres.
ReplyDelete