Notes from the Field (Archived)

Last Day in the Field

2007-02-27T16:28:00Z

Today was our last day in the field. With the help of four local workers (Anand, Prakash, Vittal, and Laxman), we finished up our work in the Gokak area. We screen-washed almost 2.5 tons of sediment from several sites where many clam, snail, and turtle fossils were exposed on the surface. Tomorrow, we’ll get on the road for Hyderabad early in the morning and spend the next few days in Hyderabad packing our fossils for shipment.

Closing up the field season is always bittersweet. On one hand, you always feel like maybe all that you need is a week or two more to find that perfect mammal jaw that you’ve been dreaming of or that site that’s dripping with fossils. But on the other hand, fieldwork, especially in a different country, is tiring to say the least. Everyday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. we’ve been hiking around in 85-95 F heat, hauling heavy loads of sediment, and at night staying in different lodges almost every week.

In all, it’s been a successful field season. We’ve learned a lot about the geology and how to find fossils here in India. We would always like to have some mammal fossils in hand, but we have high hopes that they’re there in the sediment that we’ve yet to look at under the microscope. And although I love learning about the Indian culture, tasting the food, and soaking up the amazing views, I’m ready to get back to Denver and tame a craving I’ve had for a cheeseburger and fries. See you soon.

Neighborhood Kids Help with Search for Fossils in Badlands Outside of Gokak

2007-02-22T17:53:00Z

On Tuesday, we started work in our second area—a small pocket of badlands just outside the town of Gokak in the southwestern state of Karnataka. Twelve years ago, when the GSI first started work here, these badlands were isolated. But with the continued growth of India, a nearby village has extended a dusty road with a string of small houses and huts to the border of these badlands. It makes fieldwork a whole new experience.

The stretch of outcrop where we find Dinosaur-age fossils, also happens to fall in the Murkibhavi’s backyard. The Murkibhavi’s are a family of 17; they are three brothers, their three wives, and 11 children. They all live together in a small ranch-style mud brick house with three mud-floor rooms and no plumbing or electricity. With the help of new irrigation wells, they farm the land adjacent to the outcrop, growing grains and corn. They also keep goats, cows, water buffalo, and chickens, all just in front of their house.

We first met the Murkibhavi’s and all of their curious neighbors last year. After the initial shock of seeing a westerner and one that plays in the dirt in the hot sun, most families gave in to their curiosity and sent a troop of kids on small fact-finding missions. I would show them examples of the fossils and communicate with pictures of the fossil animals in my notebook. I would also wow them by taking their photos and showing it to them on the camera’s digital display screen. On occasion, I would also give them a spare chocolate or other candy I had. In hindsight, it’s not surprising that the news traveled through the village like wildfire, and that a year later, the wildfire hasn’t died down. The village kids follow me through the outcrops in swarms shouting, “America, America,” “photo, photo,” and “chocolate, chocolate,” sometimes in succession just like that. Although the typical Zen-like experience of prospecting for fossils feels more like the pit at the New York Stock Exchange, it’s one of my favorite things about fieldwork here.

Once the kids settle down and realize what I’m doing, they act as vacuum cleaners on the outcrop. Shuttling barefoot across thorn-covered slopes, they bring me possible finds and await one of my three verdicts in their native tongue (Kannada): “simpy” (clam or snail), “ami” (turtle), or “nayhee” (not a fossil). The last verdict, of course, comes with lots of jeers from the other kids. Today, we added a fourth verdict: “mosa-lay” when Sidappa found a crocodile bone. By the end of the trip, I’m hoping to add a fifth verdict: "mammal."

Driving's an Adventure from Andhra Pradesh to Gokak

2007-02-20T21:10:00Z

Over the weekend we finished up our work in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Although we didn't see a lot of fossil bone, we're confident that the 3 tons of sediment that we sieved will lead to some good discoveries back at the lab under the microscopes.

On Monday we drove the 300+ miles to our second main area outside the town of Gokak in the state of Karnataka. Driving is the one thing that I truly dread about fieldwork in India. It seems dangerous in the other places I've been but India is in a league of its own. Fortunately, when you rent a vehicle here, you also hire a driver. The drivers have a language of honks, light signals, and arm waves that I still don't fully understand. And when I do, I usually don't like the translation: "yeah, it's safe, go ahead and pass me uphill around this sharp turn." But for the past two years, we've had the same driver, Tirupathi, who is actually very safe and doesn't do the macho blind curve thing too often.

The trip started off at 7 a.m. and went off with only two minor incidents: a tire leak and a random pull-over by the police. It turns out Tirupathi license, registration, and insurance were all expired. He was looking at a 3,500 rupee fine (85 dollars), but we managed to talk the officer down to 1,000 rupees (22 dollars). That doesn't sound like much, but to our driver it was a severe blow, close to a week's wages. After regrouping, he successfully weaved in and out of traffic honking at every opportunity and bringing us safely to our lodge by 9 p.m. Tomorrow we'll start work at our site that has produced some beautifully preserved mammal teeth.

A Brush with the Law

2007-02-13T22:06:00Z

So I had my first run-in with the law here. On Sunday, Mr. Anantharaman worked with two workers washing sediment in the stream, while 10 kilometers away I collected sediment with two workers and our driver (Tirupathi). At the end of the day, Tirupathi drove us down the dirt road toward the village. Before we reached the village, we came upon a man dressed in slacks and a collared shirt, unlike the dress of most of the locals that we usually see in the fields. He waved us down in a way that clearly meant business. He spoke sternly in either Hindi or Tellagu, which Tirupathi simply translated to me as "man officer." Tirupathi tried to explain to the officer what we were doing and who we were with (Geological Survey of India), but the officer wasn't pacified.

He got in and ordered Tirupathi to drive us to his office in the nearby town. The officer slowly began addressing me in English, informing me that he was a Forest Service Officer, that we were illegally working on a Forest Preserve, and that collecting sediment or minerals on the Forest Preserve comes with a hefty fine. Great, that'll help my budget. This wasn't a complete surprise though; earlier that morning Mr. Anantharaman, in passing, had mentioned that the site was on a Forest Preserve but didn't make a big a deal about it. And various groups, including the GSI, have been collecting there for almost 20 years, so I figured we were okay. Wrong. To make matters worse, Tirupathi had incorrectly told the officer that Mr. Anantharaman worked for the ISI not the GSI or the Geological Survey of India. The ISI, as it turns out, is a Pakistani terrorist group. I had a little explaining to do ...

We arrived at his office and were quickly joined by 3 other officials. They sent Tirupathi back to retrieve Mr. Anantharaman. In the sparse office, I sat across from the officer (Vijay), while the others sat behind me and to my sides—not the most feng shui of arrangements. They did order me some chai though. There was a lot of discussion amongst themselves, cell phone conversations, and a series of questions trying to understand why we collected all that dirt (I get that a lot). Vijay showed me a map of the Forest Preserve and an official photocopy of the fines for various offenses—ours would be steep. As a last resort, I mentioned that there weren't any signs indicating the boundaries of the preserve. Too bad. As a show of willingness to comply, I asked whether I could have a copy of the map so that I avoided the same mistake next time. No dice.

My saving grace was that it took an hour and a half before Tirupathi returned with Mr. Anantharaman. After going over the logistics about the Forest Preserve, Vijay couldn't resist asking about my impressions of India. And in the course of exhausting all my Hindi and Tellagu words and all that I knew of Bollywood actors and actresses and Indian cricket bowlers and batsmen, Vijay and I actually managed to hit it off. He decided to drop the fines altogether and allowed us to continue working as long as we contact the main office next time. We took a ceremonial photograph to celebrate.

Getting Reacquainted with India

2007-02-12T20:01:00Z

I've been here nearly a week and our work is humming along pretty nicely right now. We have four workers from the village of Naskal that now know exactly what we're doing and how to do it, which is great. We've collected and sieved about three tons of fossiliferous sediment. Hopefully we'll find some good mammal jaws and teeth in the concentrate; so far it looks a bit sparse unfortunately.

In addition to our work, I'm starting to feel more at home in India again. It always takes awhile to remember all of the little intricacies and cultural differences and of course I learn new ones each time I visit. For example, I've been eating breakfast at this corner shop for four straight mornings. They serve puri and dahl. Puri is a circular-shaped fried bread and dahl is basically a lentil-type sauce that you dip the bread into. It's really tasty. I also order coffee with my breakfast, but everytime the coffee doesn't show 'till I'm done with my puri and dahl. I've tried reminding them and have even ordered chai (tea) instead, noticing that I was the only one ordering coffee and maybe it takes longer to make or something. But today what I realized was that they only bring chai after you've eaten or if you aren't eating. One to grow on.

Because I'm outside the main tourist cities people are surprised to see a non-Indian, so they'll just come up and start asking me 20 questions. They'll sit down with you if you're at dinner, which is fine because I enjoy the company and I end up learning some Hindi or the local language, Tellagu.

Repostar (which means "I'll see you tomorrow" in Tellagu)

Working in the Field Near the Village of Naskal

2007-02-12T19:56:00Z

Today was our third day in the field. We've been working at a locality near the village of Naskal, about 68 kilometers from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. It's where the first mammal fossils from the Age of Dinosaurs in India were found. Besides me, the field team consists of my GSI colleague (Mr. Anantharaman), our driver (Tirupathi), and four workers that we hired from the village of Naskal (Enkaya, Malaya, Jangaya, Chendraya). Not sure if everyone in the village ends their name in "aya" but it seems that way. The famous Naskal site hadn't been touched in over six years so the first day we had to do a lot of digging to get down to the fossil layer. It took most of the day.

Yesterday we began the process of collecting sediment from the fossil layer, finding little bits of bone and shell along the way. That night I ended up staying in a lodge in Pargi, a small village of 30,000. Sounds like a lot of people but there were few conveniences there, which means there wasn't an Internet cafe. Today was another long day of clearing away more dirt so that we could collect more sediment from the fossil layer. Mr. Anantharaman took two of the workers (Malaya and Jangaya) to a stream where they began the process of sieving the sediment in wooden boxes with mesh-screened bottoms. I worked with Enkaya and Chendraya. They don't speak English, only a little Hindi and the local language Tellagu. I don't speak either of those two Indian languages except the numbers and "go" which is "chello." Oh yeah, I've also learned the word for "mouse" (alluka) so that I can roughly describe the mammal fossils that we're looking for. We end up communicating through mime and drawing, which I'm sure probably looks pretty hilarious if anyone else was around to view it. So tonight I'm staying in the town of Vikarabad; it's about 10 miles away from our site and worlds apart from Pargi considering I'm typing away in this Internet cafe with the sounds of The Backstreet Boys blaring ("I want it that way").

First Day in Hyderabad, India

2007-02-06T23:18:00Z

It's 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday here in Hyderabad, India. I actually wrote this entry earlier today, but as I was about to send it, the power went out, and I lost everything. Apparently, the city of Hyderabad has regularly scheduled power outages; this one occurred a bit earlier than scheduled. I don't think this sort of thing would go over too well in the States, but here in India it's pretty much taken in stride. There's a lot of those types of things. Sometimes they offer a refreshing perspective and other times they're a little frustrating.

I left Denver for India on Sunday at noon. A little more than 30 hours later at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning I arrived in Hyderabad, the capital of the south central state of Andhra Pradesh, India. I was met at the airport by two of my colleagues from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) -- Dr. Kumar Ayyasami, the Director of Paleontology for the Southern Region, and Mr. Anantharaman, a retired geologist. They drove me to my hotel in the city of Hyderabad. I had asked them to arrange more modest accommodations than the ones they arranged for me in 2006. These are definitely modest. They're in an unfinished concrete building and include a dank room with a hard bed, a sheet, and a blanket, a danker bathroom with a turkish toilet and a bucket-shower, and a diverse insect population. Not a big deal though; we'll be taking off for the field tomorrow morning.I'm definitely feeling the wear from the travel and the time difference, but tonight I'll go shopping for some supplies and get reaquainted with south Indian cooking.

The Search for Fossils in India

2007-02-01T21:17:00Z

Greg Wilson, PhD, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology

During most of the Age of Dinosaurs (Mesozoic Era), India had a much more southerly position than it does today. It was positioned alongside Madagascar and was connected to South America via Antarctica. Then, at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs (Cretaceous Period), India split from these other landmasses and began drifting northward. It would eventually collide with Eurasia and form what are today the Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan Plateau.

This dramatic journey took nearly 40 million years, but very little is known about the dinosaurs, mammals, plants, and other organisms that were carried on this Indian raft. Some expect that they were like plants and animals known from South America and other southern landmasses at this time, and others expect that the evolution that took place during this long journey produced plants and animals very different from those on other southern continents.

As part of my continuing field research in India, I will be travelling to Hyderabad in the state of Andhra Pradesh to meet with colleagues from the Geological Survey of India. Together we will be exploring fossil beds in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in hopes of discovering fossils that will give us clues to the plants and animals that lived on the Indian raft during the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs.