RE: Even Newer Ref!!!

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> Philip D. Gingerich, Alan Feduccia, Munir ul Haq, Reza*, John Ruben,
> Primal Dude**, Larry D. Martin: An astonishing Konservat-Lagerstätte in 
> the Aalenian of northern Afghanistan, Afghan Geological Survey Special
> Publications 20(4), 1 -- 186

What are respectable paleontologists like Philip Gingerich and Munir ul Haq
doing among this lot?   :-) 

>Now that the area is at least as accessible as 30 years ago, massive 
> excavations have begun, and the local economy has shifted from opium to 
> fossil trade.

I'm not surprised the opium trade has halted - the authors must have used up
the remaining supply when they wrote this paper.  Birds evolving from
feathered prolacertiforms???!!!  You'd have to be high to take that idea
seriously!     

> Several slabs have been secured by a policeman who demanded a higher 
> bribe than the smuggler could pay. 

There's a policeman in northern Afghanistan?  He must have been lost.



Tim


------------------------------------------------------------ 

Timothy J. Williams 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 3163