Dinosaurs in Africa

Ok enough blogging about art and design. I really need to do some paleo work so here are some inspirations. These are photographs from Mike Hettwer which I found in the site The Big Picture thanks to Dinosaurs and Robots site.
Anyway these photos are form the Green Sahara depicting what remains of the Green Sahara. About 9,000 years ago, a very wet climate prevailed in parts of the Sahara Desert called the Neolithic Subpluvial period. Lasting several thousand years, this Green Sahara was home to many grassland and woodland animals as well as humans.
Hetter met Paul Sereno the dinosaur paleontologist ( I have met him as well this year in southern Argentina in a Paleontology conference but that is another story) o and was on expedition with him in Niger in 2000 and they found a human burial area containing hundreds of human skeletons from two distinct cultures, each thousands of years old - the Kiffian and Tenerian.

Also found in the dry and desolate site were hunting tools, pottery, and bones of large land animals and fish (thats the stuff that I am into).
Mike Hettwer's photographs have appeared in 2,500 magazines, newspapers books and web sites - many of these photos are from his article "Lost Tribes of the Green Sahara" in the Sep. 2008 issue of National Geographic.
This cast of a Suchomimus dinosaur seen in Agadez, Niger, was donated to the country of Niger by paleontologist Paul Sereno at the Flamme de la Paix ceremony, that celebrated the end of a five year civil war. Suchomimus was a 110 million year old meat eater with a dinosaur's body and a crocodile's head. Over 20 new species of dinosaurs and crocodiles were found on this three month expedition. (© Mike Hettwer) #
Renowned dinosaur hunter Paul Sereno fights an 80 mph sandstorm that eventually tore apart the team's tents in the highly deforested Gobi Desert, Mongolia. (© Mike Hettwer) #


In the city of In Gall, Niger, men from the Wodaabe tribe dance and sing at the Gerewol festival just as a massive sandstorm hits. The Gerewol is an annual courting festival where the men try to look as beautiful as possible so they are chosen for mates by Wodaabe women.The Wodaabe may be related to the ancient human groups that lived in the Gobero area thousands of years ago. (© Mike Hettwer) #
This 8,000 year-old giraffe rock carving in DaBous, Niger is considered one of the finest petroglyphs in the world. The giraffe has a leash on its nose implying some level of taming the animals. It dates to the Kiffian era of 7,000 - 9,000 years ago. (© Mike Hettwer) #

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