Panama Canal widening opens archaeological treasure trove -- Signs of the Times News:
Natalie Angier
New York Times News Service
Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:31 UTC
The Culebra Cut, Panama - You can't leave Aldo Rincon alone for a moment.
As a small knot of scientists and visitors dressed in hard hats and orange safety vests milled around on the banks of the Panama Canal, chatting about the $5 billion expansion program now under way to widen the storied canal and so accommodate the ever-fatter freighters that ply the planet's seas, Rincon, 30, quietly pulled a few digging tools from his backpack. He squatted down near an unremarkable-looking patch of pebbles and broken rock and began methodically scraping away in the dirt.
The helmeted throng wandered off briefly to inspect a sloping chop of sedimentary and volcanic layer cake that the construction project had exposed nearby. On returning to Rincon and his rasping trowel, scientists and guests alike gasped with amazement. In a mere 15 minutes of work, Rincon, a paleontology intern with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, had unearthed a big, beautiful fossilized femur bulging up pertly from a sedimentary substrate. The bone was about 7 inches long and so flawlessly preserved it looked fit for a soup pot.
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As a small knot of scientists and visitors dressed in hard hats and orange safety vests milled around on the banks of the Panama Canal, chatting about the $5 billion expansion program now under way to widen the storied canal and so accommodate the ever-fatter freighters that ply the planet's seas, Rincon, 30, quietly pulled a few digging tools from his backpack. He squatted down near an unremarkable-looking patch of pebbles and broken rock and began methodically scraping away in the dirt.
The helmeted throng wandered off briefly to inspect a sloping chop of sedimentary and volcanic layer cake that the construction project had exposed nearby. On returning to Rincon and his rasping trowel, scientists and guests alike gasped with amazement. In a mere 15 minutes of work, Rincon, a paleontology intern with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, had unearthed a big, beautiful fossilized femur bulging up pertly from a sedimentary substrate. The bone was about 7 inches long and so flawlessly preserved it looked fit for a soup pot.
READ MORE
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