After three days working topside, I went back down into Natural Trap Cave today.
Most of what I did involved the excavation of a North American cheetah.
The skeleton is all broken up, but may be fairly complete. It’s mixed with what appears to be bones of a native sheep.
I found a little cheetah hand bone.
We did some heavier work today too, clearing out overburden to get to the most fossiliferous layers.
One of the highlights of working in Natural Trap Cave is learning to tell the time by where the sun is on the cave floor. At about 11:00 am the sun just reaches the floor, behind a pile of rocks and dirt. It’s just beautiful to see.
When the sun sends its beams to the opposite side of the cavern in the afternoon, we know it’s time to pack up and climb back out.
By the end of the day, the chill of the cave plus exhaustion from hard work have made us all a little slap-happy. But you gotta admit, this brush does remind you of someone, doesn’t it?
And did I mention that the sunset was lovely again?
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist 