Fwd: Tibet field update 2

This is day 15 in Zhada Basin. The basin is scenic as usual (see
attached picture; background is one of the 6000-meter plus peaks of
the Himalayas), although it's quite dry this year -- good thing for
vert paleontologists but presumably bad for local economy.

The collecting has been good. In addition to the usual horses, rhinos,
and bovids, we got four taxa that are new records for the basin. Two
of them are giraffes: a perfect ossicone of Palaeotragus and a pair of
ossicones of rather modern-looking giraffid that we no idea what to
make of it. The other two new records are a dog (Xenocyon) and a cat
(Lynx?). Furthermore, we got some nice cranial and dental materials of
a raccoon dog (previously known by an edentulous jaw frag).

We will wrap up our Zhada works in a day or two, and, to expand our
horizons, plan to spend a few days in 2-3 small basins in nearby
areas.

Best from Tibet,

Xiaoming

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