Road gang unearths dinosaur fossils

[lee]

Road gang unearths dinosaur fossils
Bones looted before geologists get to site

YUTTHAPONG KAMNODNAE

Udon Thani _ Construction of the Nong Bua Lam Phu-Udon Thani highway came to a halt after dinosaur fossils were unearthed nearby in the Phu Phan mountain range. The suspension was ordered by Nong Bua Lam Phu Governor Torpong Ampan to make way for the fossil excavation.

At the excavation site in front of a forest fire-control centre, seven geologists are busy digging up fossils from sandstone using hammers and drills. The work drew many curious onlookers. These fossils are thought to belong to the 'Phuwiangosaurus Sirindhornae' dinosaur family, geologist Pratchaya Bamrungsuk of Phu Wiang Dinosaur Museum in Khon Kaen said.

Dinosaur remains were discovered in three large deposits, about 20-30 metres apart, which were unearthed by backhoes during construction of the Nong Bua Lam Phu-Udon Thani road in tambon Noan Tan of Nong Bua Lam Phu's Muang district.

Workers left the fossils untouched and shifted the work to other locations.

Mr Pratchaya and his team arrived seven days after the discovery.

However, he was told fossil pieces had been looted by villagers by the time his team arrived.

''A large leg fossil in the first deposit hole was gone when we arrived. We spotted smaller leg fossils in the second hole with various chin, rib, backbone and tail parts scattered in the third,'' Mr Pratchaya said.

They resemble the 130-million-year-old ''Phuwiangosaurus Sirindhornae'' dinosaur fossils extracted from sandstone in Phu Wiang district's 150-million-year-old fossil-shell graveyard only one kilometre away.

Mr Pratchaya said the fossils possibly belonged to herbivorous sauropod dinosaur, aged around 120-150 million years, which lived in the area during the Jurassic era. Sauropods are long-necked, lumbering giants standing many metres high.

Some fossils will be kept at the office of the tambon Non Tan administration organisation, while the others will go to the laboratory for further examination, he said.

Contractors were commissioned to lay the four-lane 50km road, with a stretch spanning 10km cutting through the Phu Phan mountain range.

The work has carried on for three months with nine more months to go. Construction teams working on the road, in the meantime, are racing against time to finish the project.

The project, which was included in the 2004 National Economic and Social Development Plan, had been frozen due to economic sluggishness.

It was approved during one of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's upcountry trips, to Wat Ban Tad.

[Paul]

For a find of such importance - why oh why was the site left unattended ?

Even Somchai wasisnamagen could have been a guard there for 150 baht a day. What is that when we are talking a find which is millions of years old ?

TIT !