What a day! Early in the morning we met with Carlos at STRI, hopped in a Smithsonian truck, and headed for the Caribbean side of Panama. I knew that today we would be working at a beachfront site, but I never would have guessed just how jaw-dropping of an experience it would prove to be. The drive was long: through one of Panama's national forests, up a big stretch of highway, across the Gatun locks, through the gorgeous towns of Achiote and Pina, then down onto the waterfront.
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| Literally working in the ocean! |
Even before the water came into sight, the views were spectacular. The houses there (and probably throughout much of Panama) are built entirely of cinder blocks, occasionally with rebar, then plastered over and painted fantastic colors. Vibrant reds, greens, yellows, pinks, and every other bright color imaginable line the streets and stand out against the hillsides. Add to that some towering palms, endless ocean, and gently rolling waves and you have one hell of a place to spend the day working. And we were not merely working next to this beautiful scene - we were on the front lines. What makes this locality so interesting, is that continuous wave action and large tidal swings slowly eat away at the solid rock along the shore, exposing numerous impressive fossils and then receding back far enough to allow us to extract them. Carlos actually visits this place every few months and is constantly finding newly exposed fossils. So from about 11:00 am to 4:00 pm we were out in ankle-deep water with rock hammers, chisels, and a pickaxe, pulling out anything we could find. Words seriously aren't enough. It was the one of the most incredible things I've ever done as a geologist.
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| Note the start of a trench being dug out around the fin |
The rock we were extracting from is known as the Cucaracha Formation and dates to the Miocene (~3-23 million years old), but I don't know the exact age it spans. There were more than enough fossils to go around; by the end of the day we had collected several whale and dolphin teeth, a few vertebrae from a large fish, a wonderfully preserved dorsal fin, and a skull. Other than the teeth, most specimens were not fully removed from the encasing rock and we had to carry large slabs back to the truck. This was done so as not to damage the fossils and lose material - it's much easier and safer to remove the fossil back in the lab. Since they were left in the rock, it was difficult to precisely identify what animals were represented by these fossils, but even so Aaron and Carlos were able to throw out some pretty quick and confident guesses. We were lucky in that there was plenty of drift material, including an old pallet on the beach that we could use to help us get everything back to the truck. The driftwood also made great levers for hoisting the slabs out of the ground. It was an incredibly productive trip and by the end of it I hardly had the energy to use my rock hammer and chisel - I thought my arm was going to fall off!
To my dismay (only initially), when we got back to STRI, Aaron told all of us that we had 30 minutes until our volleyball game started. Apparently, STRI does a tournament every semester, with every department having a team, and we were on the Paleontology/Geology team. So I ran to the apartment, rinsed out my salty and sandy field clothes, and headed back to the main STRI campus, Tupper, with Aaron and Sam for our game. (Fun side story: The Tupper center is named for the man who invented Tupperware. He donated a large sum of money for its construction and his family visits regularly. How bizarre.) The games are played on the parking lot blacktop , which was overflowing with people when we arrived. I'm not sure how many total teams there are, but judging from the number of different jerseys I saw, I would guess maybe 6-8. Off to the side was a truck that sells beers and sodas for a buck and grilled meat-on-a-stick for half that. Almost immediately it was clear that this was as much a social event as a sporting event. We spotted our team in one corner of the lot and they informed us that this was a bye week for us, so we were only going to be practicing once the games were over. Thank God. From the 30 seconds of play I had seen, I could already tell I was in over my head. These guys were good. All of them. And no one held back with the trash talk. During our PRACTICE game against one of the other teams, our coach (yes, we have a coach for this "informal" tournament) mocked Aaron for faulting his first serve. It was intense. Sam and I were lucky enough to be two of the taller players on our team, which seemed to give us default credibility. Once we got into the groove of the game, it became more fun and layed back and I actually ended up having a lot of fun. But we got destroyed. Three games, all lost by a dozen points or more. Hopefully some magic will happen for next week's game.
To my dismay (only initially), when we got back to STRI, Aaron told all of us that we had 30 minutes until our volleyball game started. Apparently, STRI does a tournament every semester, with every department having a team, and we were on the Paleontology/Geology team. So I ran to the apartment, rinsed out my salty and sandy field clothes, and headed back to the main STRI campus, Tupper, with Aaron and Sam for our game. (Fun side story: The Tupper center is named for the man who invented Tupperware. He donated a large sum of money for its construction and his family visits regularly. How bizarre.) The games are played on the parking lot blacktop , which was overflowing with people when we arrived. I'm not sure how many total teams there are, but judging from the number of different jerseys I saw, I would guess maybe 6-8. Off to the side was a truck that sells beers and sodas for a buck and grilled meat-on-a-stick for half that. Almost immediately it was clear that this was as much a social event as a sporting event. We spotted our team in one corner of the lot and they informed us that this was a bye week for us, so we were only going to be practicing once the games were over. Thank God. From the 30 seconds of play I had seen, I could already tell I was in over my head. These guys were good. All of them. And no one held back with the trash talk. During our PRACTICE game against one of the other teams, our coach (yes, we have a coach for this "informal" tournament) mocked Aaron for faulting his first serve. It was intense. Sam and I were lucky enough to be two of the taller players on our team, which seemed to give us default credibility. Once we got into the groove of the game, it became more fun and layed back and I actually ended up having a lot of fun. But we got destroyed. Three games, all lost by a dozen points or more. Hopefully some magic will happen for next week's game.
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