General News Update

05 September 2011
Since August I am the acting curator for fossil vertebrates at the Natural History Museum of Berlin which finally gives me the time to finish several publications waiting in the line, often for several years…

And the outlook is also very positive: In summer 2012 I will start with a large research project at the Lower Saxon State Museum Hannover, funded by the VolkswagenFoundation concerning the famous dwarfed sauropod Europasaurus and its contemporary fauna in the Langenberg-Quarry near the Harz Mountains. It will involve a large excavation, so stay tuned.

Regarding excavations: After three months of digging at our dinosaur trackway locality in Münchehagen during this spring, there is another fieldseason coming up:

Our Sino-German Fieldwork in the Turpan Basin continues – this time, however, not concerning our giant dinosaur finds, but “just” fossil turtles. Of couse, our Chinese turtles at the Mesa Chelonia locality are special too! We will finally be able to properly excavate (i.e, cutting with an immensly powerful hydraulic 63 cm ICS diamond-bladed chainsaw) blocks of the huge bonebed with an estimated total number of 3000 turtles. See my SVP Abstract from 2009 for details about this stunning locality.

A news update will likely follow when I have returned from China and the SVP Meeting in Las Vegas in early November.