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Dodo weblog 2007
Before man's arrival exotic animals and plants thrived on Mauritius, the most famous of which is the dodo whose remains have been discovered in considerable numbers in the Mare aux Songes swamp in the southeastern corner of the island. Field campaigns of the Dodo Research Programme led by Naturalis and TNO in 2005 and 2006 have shown that Mare aux Songes preserves a significant part of the pre-human Mauritian ecosystem. Being more than a dodo graveyard, the site is hypothesized to be a so called Lagerstätte, due to local geological conditions that favour the accumulation and preservation of organic material. A new field trip aims to verify this assumption by conducting a meticulous excavation of four square meters of pumped dry swamp using state of the art forensic techniques. Mare aux Songes would be the first lagerstätte discovered on a volcanic island and, more importantly, holds the promiss that science will succeed to reconstruct the lost world of the dodo. read more >
Day nine - The Dodo Polder - Perry de Louw - 7 augustus 2007A BREAKTHROUGH!An hour before nightfall we managed to get the excavation pit dry. Rene Floore and the crane driver placed the last sheet-piles and started the pumps. And twenty minutes later the water level in the pit already lowered 10 centimeters. So our selfconstructed dam functions beyond our expectations. This is quite a critical moment, because if we failed we could not start the excavation.... lees verderBekijk eerder gestelde vragen Day Six - Water wells up - Perry de Louw - 6 augustus 2007Working in wet conditions has its own specific difficulties. Yesterday a local contractor, Sotramon, started to drill holes with a diamond-headed borer (to get through the layer of dumped basalt) and installed the pumps. It took us several hours to drill six holes around the 2 x 2 meter sized excavation pit. In each hole we lowered a rubber tube down to groundwater level. We then connected the tub... lees verderBekijk eerder gestelde vragen Day three, sheet-piling - Kenneth Rijsdijk - 1 augustus 2007Digging a hole is easy. But how to keep it dry? This is the ultimate challenge of the expedition. Remember in Mare aux Songes groundwater level almost equals the walking surface. If we want seeing dodo bones arranged in situ, we need a dry hole.Option one for drilling a sheet-pile is using a 50 ton crane, the biggest you can get on the island. But imagine this mastodont to get stuck in the swamp, ... lees verderBekijk eerder gestelde vragen Day two, initial preparations - Perry de Louw - 1 augustus 2007Novices Tamara Vernimmen, Mikel Rijsdijk and I were shown around at Mare aux Songes by Alan Grihault. Kenneth Rijsdijk had a busy time telephoning and faxing to get official permission from the authorities to start the excavation. Without, no digging.Rene Floore located the sieving installation he built last year and which we will use permanent while digging. Julian Hume, Kenneth and I drove to Ma... lees verderBekijk eerder gestelde vragen Day one, spectacular find! - Perry de Louw - 29 juli 2007As soon as we set foot on Mauritius we headed for an excursion into the vast system of lavatunnels on the hilly side of the island. In the shadow of Julian Hume we entered a cave where speleologists discovered a complete dodoskeleton, only a month ago. This would be the first ever discovered in the Mauritian highlands. Soon it pointed out that also we would be lucky in the catacombs. In the smal ... lees verderBekijk eerder gestelde vragen  |
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