×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog

The Environment Institute's has located to a new office Ìýrecently. His new locale is 30 metres underground, surrounded by skeletons of creatures that have fallen in to the natural sinkhole over the last 100 000 years. Rather than your average workday commute, someÌýÌýare required to abseil to the floor of the cave.

The trip to Wyoming to excavate theÌýÌýhas been funded by and theÌý.ÌýProf Alan Cooper and ProfÌý are the leads of the expedition.

Prof Meachen began live tweeting the scientists' descent into the cave on her twitter accountÌý. You can view photos and watch as the action unfolded using theÌýhashtag .

In the video below, which has received over 24 000 views in the last week, Alan Cooper discusses the fossil finds at Natural Trap Cave.



Cooper and his team are particularly interested in the extinction of Ice Age megafauna that became extinct about 10 000 years ago. One such creature is the American Lion, which is 25% larger than the African Lion.

explains the main research questions of the expedition on the :

1)ÌýÌýÌý Was each animal’s population genetically diverse before the time of extinction? (If each species was not very diverse, it suggests that whatever caused them to go extinct started happening before the big Pleistocene extinction date (approx. 10,000 years ago)).

2)ÌýÌýÌý Did the animals living in Wyoming look the same as their relatives in the far north? (Looking different tells us that the animals were evolving to best fit their environment. Then the question is, what are those differences and why do they offer advantages?).

3)ÌýÌýÌý Do we see major genetic changes at the same time as climatic changes? (If so, it suggests that the animals changed in response to the changing climate).

The exploration of the cave has made headlines worldwide including coverage byÌý, , , the and amongst others.

[caption id="attachment_6048" align="alignleft" width="199" caption="Prof Alan Cooper holding a camel metatarsal (camel toe) Image: Laura Weyrich"]ÌýÌý°Ú/³¦²¹±è³Ù¾±´Ç²Ô±Õ

Prof Alan Cooper has also written aÌýÌýof the first week in the cave, illustrating that a career in science can really take you to some amazingly high (or low) places!

"I guess the highlight of that first week was pulling out some intact limb bones in good condition. One of the first was a beautiful camel metatarsal – or camel toe as I dubbed it – a huge bone. About 1 inch was showing in the midst of a compact layer of rocks and sediment, and as I was digging it out (with everyone watching) it just got longer and longer. First I thought it was a bison (due to the width of the end), then a horse (due to the length of the shaft vs the cross section) and then as the joints for the toes appeared – instantly I knew it was a Western Camel (Camelops hesternus) – a relatively rare find in such good condition."

Remains that have been best preserved will be brought back to universities in the United States and to the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlogn Centre for Ancient DNA at the ×îÐÂÌÇÐÄVlog of Adelaide for testing.