Fossil treasures found in flooded caves in southwestern Madagascar! 🌊
A team of #NSFfunded researchers is looking at fossils found underwater, in the cave floor, & buried in sediments where they have rested in obscurity for thousands of yrs. #NationalFossilDay
📽️wait for it💀
This is Laurie Godfrey. Godfrey and team have discovered a great series of fossil elephant birds (largest bird that ever lived!) and hippopotamuses as well as some lemurs. #NationalFossilDay
“In a flooded cave the preservation can be just marvelous. Nothing’s bothering them, nothing’s disturbing them.” -- Godfrey #NationalFossilDay
Here is a Pachylemur ⬇️
📷: Barry Coleman.
Godfrey's colleague, biological anthropologist Zachary Klukkert, describes the unique challenges of recovering fossils from an underwater cave. ⬇️
#NationalFossilDay
Studying large-scale extinction events in the past can help us understand declines in global biodiversity in our modern world. #NationalFossilDay
📷: Laurie Godfrey