High-Risk Exploratory Research: Phreatic-Zone Excavation and Integrated Site Analysis in Southwestern Madagascar.

Fordham University, Bronx NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project will use a newly-developed approach for excavating fossils from bogs and other flooded sites. The investigators have found that by placing a large-diameter well in the corner of an excavation pit and pumping groundwater to a different part of the same aquifer with lightweight, high-pressure water pumps, it is possible to extract fossils from sites previously out of reach under the water table. Such sites are especially favorable to fossil preservation, and this method will allow the extraction of bones, soft tissue, ancient DNA, plant microfossils and macrofossils, and many other types of information with a maximum amount of control over the depth and context. There is no impact on the area's water resources, because the water is returned to the aquifer. If this approach works in the ancient lake-beds of southwestern Madagascar, it will permit the scientists to investigate the circumstances surrounding the apparently rapid extinction of the giant lemurs, elephant birds, and other large and unusual animals of prehistoric Madagascar, and to reconstruct the conditions under which they lived. Work of this type will allow the testing of five competing hypotheses for the cause of these extinctions, which many scientists believe were caused in some way by prehistoric humans. Perfecting this technique will open new avenues for research on prehistoric landscapes and facilitate the direct application of paleoecology to the goals of ecological restoration.