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Dodo Expedition Weblog 2006
Members of the Dodo Research Team daily blog you into the Dodos' past with news from the field, latest findings and preliminary interpretations.
Who or what killed the Dodo? What role did the flightless pigeon play in the pristine Mauritian landscape, long before sailors set foot on the island? Dutch, British and local scientists shed light on these fascinating but still unsolved questions in a multidisciplinary field campaign from June 2nd to July 4th. In a joint effort geologists, palaeontologists, botanists, ancient DNA specialists and archaeologists systematically excavate undisturbed, not previously investigated layers at the world famous Dodo-site Mare aux Songes in the southeastern part of Mauritius. Following upon successful prospecting last year, the site is expected to yield a mass grave of Dodo bones and perfectly preserved remains of other animals and plants, representing a complete biome frozen in time, somewhere between 1000 and 3000 years ago.
The Dodo Expedition launches a three years scientific untertaking of the Dutch research institutions TNO Built Environment/Geological Survey of the Netherlands and Naturalis, the Netherlands museum of natural history. Sponsorship comes from the Treub Foundation for scientific research in the tropics.
June 23rd - Visits - By Lars van den Hoek Ostende - 24 juni 2006Today we announced our preliminary results on a press conference and the board of directors of the Mon Tresor et Mon Desert Sugar Estate were shown around at the site. The directors were enthusiastic about our research. ... lees verderJune 22nd - Singing in the Rain - By Beth Shapiro - 24 juni 2006Despite the lack of cooperation from the weather, today was another productive day on the site. The day began with the digging of another hole, this time in the third basin of the Mare aux Songes, which is the basin closest to the sea. The site was chosen based on results from coring work that was done a few weeks ago, which suggested that it could be as productive for faunal remains as the most r... lees verderJune 21st – Paying a visit to 19th century dodos - By Gilles Frenken (cameraman) - 24 juni 2006Our dodo expert Julian Hume took us to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, to visit the Mauritius Institute where showcases full of dodo bones were awaiting us. Julian examined the remains of 299 different dodos, all dug up around 1865 by a certain William Clarke. Julian was amazed to find them in an exceptionally good condition. But it's a sad thing that these dead bones have waited 140 years i... lees verder20th June - Distressed dodo and first impressions - By Ranjith Jayasena & Beth Shapiro - 24 juni 2006The Mare aux Songes excavation has resulted in an enormous amount of finds. The many bones need to be washed, photographed and catalogued. Therefore a part of the team is staying at the base processing the finds while the others are busy to get themselves dirty in the field. Today Julian went through the collection of bones uncovered by Kenneth, Frans and Pieter in the Mare aux Songes last October... lees verderJune 20th – Our friends from the media - By Lars van den Hoek Ostende - 24 juni 2006Gilles, Remmelt and Marcel are here to shoot a film for the Dutch television series "Noorderlicht". As such, they are members of the expedition team, but don’t think they only film the whole day. Our friends from the media are good fieldworkers who also help excavating dodo bones. Their 2x3=6 extra hands are very welcome to lighten our digging life.... lees verderJune 18th - A quiet weekend - By Lars van den Hoek Ostende - 19 juni 2006Over the weekend we put much effort in our contacts with our Mauritian hosts and counterparts. This is of vital importance for the expedition. Tomorrow expedition leader Kenneth Rijsdijk returns to Holland and I will start digging.... lees verderJune 16th - Dodo theme park - By Marcel & Kenneth - 17 juni 2006The results of our digging up to now are overwhelming; they exceed our highest expectations. In the words of Dodo specialist and extinct bird hunter Julian Hume: "you found gold!" However, the government and the people of Mauritius are very sensitive to communication about the Dodo. That's why we cannot present our findings in detail. Christian Foo Kune, director of the sugarcane company Mon Treso... lees verderJune 14th - First excavation day - By Ranjith Jayasena & Sem Peeters - 16 juni 2006Close to the 2005 test pit a big excavator opened the fossil bearing layer of the Mare aux Songes swamp. Our Mauritian machine driver is very skilled and he operates his excavator with utmost precision. Every scoop is presented close to our feet and we carefully examine their content. We take due time to record all relevant scientific data (soil composition, sediment profile, fossils, etc). Every ... lees verderJune 13th – One day before digging starts… - By Ranjith Jayasena & Sem Peeters - 14 juni 2006Let’s test the sieving installation before we start excavating Mare aux Songes tomorrow. That was todays mission. Well, the sieve operates fine. Close to the 2005 test pit we scooped into the ground and dumped heaps of soil on the sieve. Results seem very promising: we collected numerous seeds, chunks of wood and even bones on the sieve, all in exceptional state of preservation.Kenneth en Ranjith ... lees verderJune 12th – Special guests! - by Kenneth Rijsdijk & Ranjith Jayasena - 13 juni 2006‘Groundtracer’ Marten van der Rijst went home and left the team with new insights in subsoil composition of Mare aux Songes. At 9 a.m. Kenneth Rijsdijk, Ranjith Jayasena and Julian Hume welcomed the director and researchers of the Mauritian Sugarcane Industry and Research Institute (MSIRI) and showed them around at the site. A good opportunity to discuss cooperation. MSIRI-researchers are willing ... lees verderJune 11th – Pandanus nuts - by Kenneth Rijsdijk, Dirk van Smeerdijk & Ranjith Jayasena - 13 juni 2006An indispensible team member arrived today: dr. Julian Hume (London), who is a world renowned dodo-expert from the Natural History Museum. His knowledge of the dodo will be of great help.Ranjith, Sem, Rene and Marten scanned Fort Frederik Hendrik with the ground tracer in order to establish the occupation boundaries of the fort.Another group (Frans, Dirk, Remmelt and Gilles) payed a visit to the P... lees verderJune 10th – New discovery! - by Dirk van Smeerdijk, Ranjith Jayasena, Kenneth Rijsdijk & Sem Peeters - 10 juni 2006Additional team-members arrived today: Dirk van Smeerdijk (palaeobotany) together with Ranjith Jayasena and Sem Peeters (who, as archaeologists, will focus on bone material discovered at Fort Frederik Hendrik in order to analyse diet habits of the early Dutch inhabitants).Kenneth Rijsdijk analysed earlier extracted drill cores from Mare aux Songes and noticed that marine sand is underlaying the sw... lees verderJune 9th - Mare aux Songes and Lion Mountain - by Marten van der Rijst and Kenneth Rijsdijk - 10 juni 2006Today preparations for the intended excavation of Mare aux Songes were almost put to an end. An improvised, but state of the art, sieving installation enabling four people to work at the same time on different soil fractions was erected near the swamp. In the afternoon two of the team - Kenneth Rijsdijk and Marten van der Rijst - climbed Lion Mountain; at the top we had a panoramic view over the M... lees verderJune 8th - Kenneth, Marten & Rene - 9 juni 2006Today MTMD-manager Christian Foo Kune arranged a press conference to announce the start of the excavations in Mare aux Songes. Many Mauritian media were present, among which the Mauritian Broadcasting Company, journalists of local and national newspapers and Reuters. There's a lot of interest in our research. Journalists asked why the research includes so many foreign partners. The answer is that ... lees verderJune 7th: First results Mare aux Songes - Kenneth Rijsdijk & Remmelt Lukkien - 9 juni 2006Interpretation of geophysical (grond tracer) data collected by Marten van der Rijst indicate spots where the recently dumped layer of stone debris is thinnest. On these thin spots soil core drilling will be carried out, in order to prospect bone concentrations.The area between the green and blue lines indicates the rough pebbled debris layer. Below the green line the bone bearing swamp layer is ex... lees verderMonday June 5th - Kenneth Rijdsijk & Remmelt Lukkien - 5 juni 2006Today Marten van der Rijst conducted geophysical field mesurements with his ground tracer, all over the Mare aux Songes swamp. The data are stored in a computer and after analysing them Marten can tell us where to drill soil cores. If these cores prove rich in fossils, a mechanical excavator digs a bigger hole enabling us to sample organic remains. Every bit of soil will pass a sieve so not to mis... lees verderSunday June 4th - Remmelt Lukkien (cinematographer) - 5 juni 2006This afternoon local Dodo specialist Alan Grihault invited us for a trip across the island. Our goal was to explore various lava tunnels in order to become aquainted with their different morphology and evolution. Lava tunnels abound on Mauritius and in the eyes of expedition leader Kenneth Rijsdijk a collapsed lava tunnel gave birth to the Mare aux Songes valley.... lees verderSaturday June 3rd - Kenneth Rijsdijk & Team - 5 juni 2006After arrival on Mauritius, we immediately started to locate the digging site Mare aux Songes and started preparatory work for the excavation that will be launched next week. The preparations include: bone concentration detection with ground penetrating radar; construction of a mobile sieving installation; description and video-documentation of the present outlook of the site; marking of the spots... lees verderThe team is on its way to Mauritius! - Expedition leader Kenneth Rijsdijk - 2 juni 2006Dear Dodo friendsWhen you read this message, we are on board of our flight to Mauritius, where we will arrive this evening. But now I am standing on the roof of my home in Utrecht, typing on my personal computer. Its Thursday 11 p.m. and I have a fantastic view on the majestic Domkerk, the gothic cathedral right in the middle of the city. Quite a strange place to be on the evening before leaving f... lees verder |
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