Dominican Republic

Coral and cacti: collecting fossils in Owl Canyon

Félix takes photographs beside a fossil reef.

A fossilized star coral in Owl Canyon.

Mauro puts fine samples into a small bags for ear bones, sponge spicules or other microfossils.

Erin and Félix carry off heavy bags of samples for analysis.

It took a few wrong turns but we made the trip to the Cañon del Buho (Owl Canyon), on the shores of the Dominican Republic’s Lake Enriquillo.

Stay tuned for more updates and videos. Here are some photos from the field trip.

Vamos a los arecifes fósiles de Cañon del Buho

Salimos esta mañana al Cañon del Buho a recolectar fósiles de un inmenso arrecife coralino. Félix nos explica el pronóstico del día.

Off to Owl Canyon’s fossil reefs

This morning the crew headed off to Cañon del Buho, or Owl Canyon, so named for the owls that live in tiny caves in the rock formations. Aaron explained where we’re going (or where we went) in these clips recorded this morning:

What do shark scales say about their owners?

In this shark tale for Save our Seas Foundation, Erin Dillon explains the characteristics of some of the shark scales found on four well-known shark species. Erin is pioneering a new technique that uses these scales, known as dermal denticles, found in modern reefs and the fossil record to study changes in shark abundance and community composition over time.

Erin carries a bulk bag of a fossil reef sediment from Cañon del Buho in the Dominican Republic on March 17, 2016. The ten-kilogram bag may hold some 25 tiny shark scales known as dermal denticles.

A quick sundown stop at a huge fossil reef

Erin, Félix, Aaron and Mauro take a quick look at fossil reefs excavated along the road around Lake Enriquillo

We reached the banks of Lake Enriquillo just before nightfall. A new road has been cut through the Holocene fossil reef — to circumvent the steadily rising hypersaline lake, which is 40 meters below sea level — and the spoil of fossils line the road for kilometers. Acropora cervicornis (staghorn coral) is the dominant species found here, along with a variety of other coral species, snails and clams. Nightfall and a brief rain kept the exploratory visit short. The serious sampling begins tomorrow…

Erin and Mauro and fossil corals aplenty.

Ready for the road trip!

After some sleuthing and rental shop haggling at the Santo Domingo airport, we find a truck for the long road trip to the border with Haiti. An a few more hours we should be prepping for tomorrow’s first foray into the field.