Dinosaur hunting

Neuquen district in Argentina is famous for dinosaurs, with many important fossil discoveries in recent years. Over the last 2 days, and 600km, we visited the three most important sites.  Whilst the exhibits in these museums aren't as slickly presented as some other better known museums, they have a very high content of real bones.

Like most boys, Louis and Frankie both went through a “dinosaur” phase when they were younger, and can still name quite a few dinosaurs and recall some of their defining characteristics.  We figured that adding a new dimension of reality might re-ignite this interest, or at least provide some fascination and new knowledge. 

We visited the Carmen Funes Museum in Huincul, where the prime exhibit was a life-size model of the largest of all dinosaurs, the Argentinasaurus, which grew up to 40 metres long. (And we thought the 15 metre Southern RIght whale we saw was big!)  Next to the model was an exhibit containing many of the original bones of the dinosaur's spine and legs.

Aaaaah!  He's after us!!!

Later that day at Villa El Chocon, in the Ernesto Bachmann Museum, we saw a Gigantosaurus Carolinii, named after the paleontologist who found the bones locally. It was 80% complete, one of the most complete of all large dinosaurs found. There were some huge teeth, preserved in excellent condition too, pictured here.

Needless to say these frightening, original Gigantosaurus teeth were not for eating vegetables!

Getting your mind around the dates involved isn’t easy.  We might think of history in terms of ancient civilisations, for example, the Incas establishing Macchu Picchu 600 years ago, or Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. So trying to imagine over 100 million years ago was something of a challenge when we made our way to our final and most exciting destination at Lago de Los Barreales, a “working” dinosaur excavation site, (I was going to write “live” but that might have been misleading) which included a trip of 50km of unmade roads made significantly worse by recent tornados and storms. 

Roger, one of the three people manning the site, spent a couple of hours with us showing us around.  We had never been to a “dig” before, this was fascinating.  He showed us the softer whitish seams where they had been concentrating their recent efforts.  The earth just seemed to crumble away in your hands, it was fairly easy to dig.  We all spent some time doing this, in a searing 35 degree dry heat - and Louis came across something that looked out of place.  He called us over to examine his discovery, and Roger helped Louis very carefully remove a chunk of what looked like wood.  Roger indicated that this was part of a 110 million year-old-tree they had been removing recently. So that little chunk of tree had been right there so far back in history to the time when dinosaurs roamed and the world map would have showed Pangea, still substantially a single supercontinent at that point. It was a humbling moment. 

Louis having just dug up his 110 million-year-old piece of tree

He then showed us where they had began to excavate a dinosaur hip bone, and were confident that the entire dinosaur was there, albeit that it would be 2-3 years before they would be able to remove the whole skeleton.  He explained about the excavation process and how once they have uncovered the bones, they encase them in a special substance and establish the bones in a frame that is later removed, to keep, say, a whole tailbone structure intact.

Hip bone of unidentified dinosaur, the first part of a new discovery being painstakingly uncovered.

We came down to the museum area where they assemble all their discoveries. Some amazing sights, very few of which were behind glass cases. Not that many people come here, and those that do are shown around rather than let loose!   He let us hold (very, very carefully, and with both hands at all times!) one of only 5 genuine dinosaur eggs in the world. It was the size of a bowling ball and even heavier. 

Louis with genuine dinosaur egg,  Frankie with replica

There were some other surprises.  A model of an appropriately named megarachnid - a 400 milion year old pre-dinosaur super-spider that was a metre wide, (yes a metre wide) with huge sharp pincers, modelled on fossils found locally, although there is some debate as to whether this might have been a sea scorpion rather than a spider. 

Model of a 1 metre wide carnivorous spider, 400million years ago.  Long since extinct.  Probably.

Also a small crocodile type dinosaur where the quality and markings on the bones had been extremely well preserved.   

Beautiful detail on the crocodile tail

And the final exhibit we saw that they had painstakingly dug up nearby, a Futalognkosaurus, with a hip-bone measuring several metres wide, and striking in its completeness. 

It had been a long hot journey to see some of the world’s best dinosaur exhibits, and no nightmares reported from the boys the following evening!