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At midnight we pulled into camp.  Overcoming substantial obstacles on a daily basis--with nerves intact--is what makes a successful Saharan expedition.

Curious Croc

The 2003 Expedition isn't just on a mission to find dinosaurs--we're trying to paint a detailed picture of what life was like on Africa 90 million years ago. The discovery of a new, strange croc at our second campsite triggered our first round of "bone fever."

Josh Miller, a University of Chicago grad student, suddenly thrust his hand to the sky with a wail.  "Wow, look at this!"  There, perched between his fingers, was a monstrous croc tooth he had just plucked from the desert floor.  We all gathered to marvel at the finding of a new species.  No croc of this size easily twice that of a large living croc had ever been found in 90-million-year-old rocks on Africa.  It wouldn't be long before more of the mystery croc surfaced.

A few days later, and two hundred miles south of Josh's find, we were brought to another stunning sight. "Jaws, incredible jaws," stammered Jeff, a soft-spoken anthropology student from the Colorado College. He pointed. There, along his toe-tips were a row of teeth, each nearly an inch in diameter, protruding from jaws diving into the desert floor.  "This is great! More of mystery croc! You got the front end!" I congratulated him. 

We huddled around the find on our hands and knees and began to compare the new curious croc with the well-know Sarcosuchus, (a.k.a. "SuperCroc"). SuperCroc is a 40-foot-long dinosaur-eating crocodile that haunted the waterways on Africa 110 million years ago--20 million years earlier than the fossils now being unearthed by the team.  What was this new croc? Could it be a smaller relative of Sarcosuchus, a lineage that had gone extinct?  Or is it possibly even more closely related to living crocs?

As the crew followed Jeff's jaws into the rock with brushes, small picks, and dental tools, more of the skull emerged.  The fossils continued well into the afternoon: bony armor plates from the back, and tail vertebrae, surfaced.  We assessed our water, plaster, and burlap. We had just enough to encase the discovery and bring it back to camp.

After hours of work under intense desert sun and temperatures that reached 120^o F, the jacket encasing the skull was complete.  Weighing in at about 300 pounds, the team lifted and shoved it into the back of a Land Rover...continued