Creepy Crawlers
This team isn't
only motivated by extinct reptiles.
For some of the team--one in particular--living
reptiles are worth getting excited
over, too.
Luke and reptiles seem to have
a natural attraction. One
afternoon, as we were driving to
our next prospecting area, Luke
sighted a familiar shape.
"A monitor!" he shouted into
the radio. The vehicles made a hurried
stop. Alarmed by the rumble of the
approaching expedition convoy, the
beautiful lizard vaulted its two-foot-long,
scaly body down a burrow under a
long-abandoned truck tire.
With gloved hand, Luke pulled
the tan lizard from its hideaway
for measurements, before releasing
it to scurry back down its hole.
That night, as
dark was falling, Luke pulled a
chair a short distance from camp
to write in his journal.
Minutes later, he found a
venomous snake coiled between the
legs of the chair, inches from his
feet. Thrilled by
his late night visitor, he bagged
the beast, and proudly showed the
team the next morning before he
released it--a good distance from
camp.
Living invertebrates garner a slightly
different reaction from the team:
insects, scorpions, and wind spiders
can generate more stress than excitement
among a few of the crew members.
This year was a wet one by
Saharan standards--some areas received
as much as two inches--and the water
has gotten the desert crawling.
As a result we have taken to choosing
our campsites carefully. "Almost
no bugs here," I proclaimed with
confidence, as the crew set about
erecting the big tents at Camp Two.
By the following evening, what
had been a bug-free zone transformed:
hundreds of locusts began dive-bombing
the camp, attracted by the water,
vivid colors, and night lights.
Each evening the party grew.
By week's end, thousands
of locusts had invaded our desert
home.
Even Carol Gudanowski,
a recent University of Chicago graduate,
and one expedition member not particularly
fond of six-legged creepy crawlers,
couldn't help but be drawn in when
the team spotted an illustration
of the food chain in action. She
was shivering--but fascinated--as
she joined the group watching a
locust being eaten by a praying
mantis, which, in the same moment,
was being eaten by a wind scorpion.
When the team isn't pitting wind-scorpions
gladiator-style against dung beetles
in arenas made of coffee cans, or
scooping up cold-blooded reptiles
for measurement, we can sometimes
be found collecting recent skeletons
for a comparative study collection--our
best addition to date is a dinosaur
descendant Luke found after a long
day of fossil prospecting...continued
