From the Green Sahara story published in the September issue of natgeo : Ténéré desert, Gadoufaoua fossil zone, Niger. Paleontologist Paul Sereno paulserenoofficial and his international crew of diggers work through the cool of the night on the world’s only intact dinosaur sail, belonging to the sail-backed, duck-billed dinosaur Ouranosaurus. This huge plant-eater roamed the isolated continent of Africa some 110 million years ago, surrounded by a lush environment teeming with strange and deadly land predators, the most famous of which include the giant SuperCroc (Sarcosuchus) and an early sail-backed spinosaurid (Suchomimus). Besides light and endless personal grit, the diggers used kitchen foil, plaster, burlap, and wood to capture huge blocks of the sail for preparation back in Paul’s Fossil Lab in Chicago. Plans already exist for Niger’s future national museum to exhibit this skeleton, once cleaned, as a centerpiece in one of the halls. Text by petergwin editor afarrar work in the ...