User:Jens Lallensack/sandbox

Discovery

Early in 2005, Germans Ulrich Joger, director of the State Natural History Museum, Braunschweig, Germany, and Edgar Sommer, founder of CARGO, a relief organisation specialised in improving the local education system for the Tuareg people, explored the semi-deserts in the Agadez Region near the town of Aderbissinat in Niger after Tuareg had informed Sommer about the occurrence of large bones in the region. On their return route, they chatted with a group of Tuareg who then directed them to a hilly area nearby that was littered with small bone fragments. After a one-hour search, Joger discovered rounded bone tip sticking out of the surface, which after further excavation turned out to be a complete femur (upper thigh bone) of what would later become the holotype of Spinophorosaurus. An associated scapula (shoulder blade) and a vertebra were discovered soon after. The sediment, a hard but brittle mudstone, could be removed from the bones using light hammer blows. Joger and Sommer then hired local Tuareg for support and, after two days, had uncovered most of the specimen, which included a virtually complete, articulated vertebral column and several limb and pelvic bones. The vertebral column formed an almost complete circle, with the tip of the tail located where the skull would have been expected, which was not found. Lacking equipment and excavation permit, Joger and Sommer covered the specimen with debris for protection and returned to Germany, now planning a full-scale scientific excavation to be carried out by the Braunschweig museum. An official excavation permit was promised to the museum in 2006; in return, the museum was to built and equipped a new school for local Tuareg children. In autumn 2006, Sommer and Joger, together with paleontologist Ralf Kosma and cameraman Achim Ritter, revisited the site in preparation for the excavation, putting one of the pelvic bones in plaster to test equipment and methodology. Sponsors for financing both the school and excavation were found early in 2007, and the official campaign started on March 1, 2007, when two trucks with equipment left Braunschweig for Niger, taking a route via Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and Mali.

In the mean time, a Spanish team of the project PALDES (Paleontología y Desarrollo), led by the Paleontological Museum of Elche, was working in the region. Early in 2007, Mohamed Echika, mayor of Aderbissinat, allowed the PALDES team to excavate the skeleton previously discovered by the Germans; the skeleton was subsequently shipped to Spain. Unaware of these activities, the vanguard of the German team found an empty dig site upon their arrival on March 16; the trucks arrived on March 20. Although disappointed, the team discovered a second specimen nearby on March 17, which is to become the paratype specimen. An exploratory trench within an area littered with small bone fragments soon revealed jaw and tooth fragments; on the next day, ribs, vertebrae, a humerus (upper arm bone) and a scapula (shoulder blade) could be identified. Eight African excavation helpers joined the group on March 19. On March 20, before the arrival of the trucks, the freshwater reserve of initially 200 litres was depleted as the African helpers used it for washing the night before, causing the members of the team to faint. Excavation was usually interrupted between 12 AM and 15 PM, when temperatures reached 43–45° C. On March 25, all but two of the German team members were ill, suffering diarrhoea and circulation problems. Throughout the excavation, progress was documented with photographs and field notes. By March 27, the humerus, scapula, and most ribs had already been wrapped in protective plaster and extracted. Although no further bones were apparent beneath the skeleton, the team removed an additional 60 to 80 cm of sediment to make sure that all fossils had been collected. Excavation was completed on April 2, and packed for transport to the port of Cotonou on April 3. On the same day, Echika revealed to the team that the first skeleton had been excavated by a Spanish group with his permission, and promised to lead the team to another fossil site as compensation, located around 80 km south of Agadez at the cliff of Tiguidit. There, the team opened camp on 5. April after the discovery of sauropod bones, which would later be confirmed to represent the rear part of a skeleton of the genus Jogaria. Excavation ended on 8. April, when the team was forced to leave the largest block, a pelvis of more than half a tonne, in the field until the next season. In an attempt to discourage others from collecting the fossil, an explosive dummy was fabricated and attached to the fossil, labeled with a warning in Spanish. The block was retrieved the next season in 2008; the PALDES team had canceled excavation plans upon outbreak of the Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009).