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Brute force is needed to crack open the thick layer of rock that covers what Professor Emily Bamforth, who's leading the dig, describes as "palaeo gold".

Various state programmes include incentives for farmers to percolate water on fallow fields, flood management that sets back levees, allowing floodplains to once again serve their purpose, and a search for palaeo valleys—special geological features that could rapidly move heavy water flows underground.

“Palaeo Tourism has been huge globally so we’re expecting a lot of international interest when our borders re-open,” said Mackenzie, now a field paleontologist.

The point struck me while listening to paleontologist Matt Brown speak at this month's Pop Palaeo workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“This is a whole new palaeo ball game,” says William Jungers, a palaeoanthropologist at Stony Brook University, New York.