Continuing from yesterday’s post, here’s a few more photos of the dig site on the Katharo plain, and of the flora there.
the dig site. I was inactive, and an advance crew had to uncover it for our visit.
I won’t go into the details of the fossil, because there is an excellent site Exploring Katharo, with a detailed article on the fossil finds by A. van der Geer and colleagues. The site also has pages on the plants, which were a tremendous help in identifying the many flowers I photographed.
It was a bit weird to see the pygm hippo tusks in the excavation – after all, the plain was already a high altitude plateau in the Pleistocene. It seems these hippos really were mountaineers! Some more of the bones in the next shots.
and more plants below the fold
Anchusa italica
Vicia tenuifolia var. dalmatica
Allium ampeloprasum
oh, and all over the Mediterranean you’ll find Opuntia ficus-indica – Crete is no exception.
I took tons more photos, but instead of boring you with more flowers I’ll bore you with a panorama instead:
Click for larger size.
dinosaurpalaeo 