Niger 1997
Stats
Location: Northern Niger, Agadez region
Age of fossil beds: Lower Cretaceous, 135 million years old; Middle Cretaceous, 110 million years old
Primary Goals: excavate dinosaur graveyard, further explore Lower Cretaceous beds in the region
Accomplishments
Discovery of 98% of adult and juvenile Jobaria skeletons; discovery of Suchomimus, a 36-foot long 110 million year old fish eating predator; discovery of partial skeleton of Nigersaurus.
Scientific Announcements
- Jobaria - announced November 11, 1998
- Suchomimus – November 11, 1998
Links
http://www.news.uchicago.edu/releases/99/991111.jobaria.shtml
Highlights
In the fall of 1997 Dr. Sereno led an 18 person, four-month expedition to Niger’s Sahara Desert to search for fossils.
The undertaking took more than a year to plan and required 5 land rovers and more than two tons of supplies (including a ton of dehydrated food).
The two notable discoveries made on the expedition are Suchomimus, a fish eating theropod, Jobaria, a large plant eating sauropod.
