Hello from the Panama Canal!

I’ve been in Panama for a little less than two months, but every day we head to the field seems like a new adventure uncovering fossils. We usually head out to the field early in the morning, choose a locality, prospect the area, and we dig until lunch. This past week, however, we deviated from our normal routine to scope out some of the new cuts being made along the Canal, and to see if any looked like promising fossil-bearing localities.

Paris Morgan (left) and Jorge Moreno (right) looking from the east side of the Canal across to the new cuts.
Paris Morgan (left) and Jorge Moreno (right) looking from the east side of the Canal across to the new cuts.
Close up on the freshly exposed rocks on the west side of the Canal.
Close up on the freshly exposed rocks on the west side of the Canal.

We explored both sides of the Canal for outcrops, and ended up finding several potential localities based on their lithology. My personal favorite was an invertebrate site full of gastropods, bivalves, oysters, and even small nummulites!

Gastropods found at one of the new localities.
Gastropods found at one of the new localities.

We plan on adding these new sites to our PCP-PIRE database, along with each one’s formation, rock type, and a description of the fossils one can find. Hopefully they will yield new fossils that will augment our understanding of Panama’s paleoenvironment!

-Dipa Desai