Advertisement
Published: October 27th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Femur
Diego shows me an enormous femur bone that the center has found, but due to the hardness of the surrounding rock is unable to remove. It was already in pretty bad condition when they discovered it. So, already on this little "trip" of mine I was able to fulfill one childhood dream that I had--seeing the Amazon--but in some brilliant stroke of luck, I've spent the last two days completing my
other childhood dream, working on a dinosaur dig!
The Centro Paleontològico del Lago Barreales (or Proyecto Dino) is located a little more than an hour to the northwest of Neuquén, in a semi-desert area full of fossilized animals and plants. The entire area is incredibly rich in such paleontological treasures and boasts being home to the world's largest known carnivore, the 14m, 8 ton
Giganotosaurus Carolinii as well as the largest known dinosaur period, the 40m long, 18m high
Argentionsaurus huinculensis. Over the past six years that it's been open, the scientists have found over 800 bones at the site alone.
Beyond these stunning statistics, Proyecto Dino (
www.proyectodino.com.ar) is the only fully-functioning dinosaur excavation site in South America
open to the public. Yes, that's right, for a price well-worth the experience, you can go out to the site and assit the paleontologists in digging at excavation sites, cleaning bones in the lab, and just generally living the life, even if only for a few
On the dig
As part of the experience, you work with the technicians and paleontologists at the various excavation sites. It's a lot like slowly digging through dirt . . . except there are dinosaur bones in the dirt. days.
My first day, I was picked up from Neuquén by the husband and wife paleontologist team of Juan and Domínica (and their little baby girl) and driven out to the site. After introductions to the whole team, one of the technicians Martín took me down to the main excavation to dig in the dirt of a few hours. Within a few minutes of poking around, I found a few very small bone fragments, but they were unfortunately worthlessly small and broken. I think I was being a bit too cautious because I was probably working at half-speed compared to Martín, but I just didn't want to be that tourist responsible for losing some paleontological treasure forever because of carelessness.
After the dig, we went into the lab to work on preparation, which is the extraction of bones from the rock that surrounds it in the plastic jacket when it's brought in from a site. I really enjoyed this part of the experience because it's working very intimately with the bones. Again though, I seemed to be working very slow because I didn't want to snap some beautiful specimen in half. The bone that we worked on for
The dig
This is the main excavation site, quite close to the Center´s facilities and, as you can see, on the edge of the lake. the two days I was there was relatively easy except for a few sections that clung to the bone like cement and required a very precise neumatic hammer tool. Unfortunately, we we're able to finish extracting the bone because it was quite fagile and already fractured in the rock, so by the time I left, we still weren't sure what type of bone it was, perhaps a scapula or hip bone.
That afternoon I got a very interesting geological lesson as Martín took me on a hike around the region to see glacier deposits, different geological layers, petrified wood, volcanic rocks, etc. It's truly amazing how many scientifically interesting things can be contained in one little area.
The next day was spent doing more of the same but was topped off by a very special and exclusive look inside the bone trailer that house their collection of specimens from their site as well as others in the region. Juan showed me a number of amazing pieces, including the remains of one dinosaur that they've recently discovered and are about to publish a first study on shortly. This short tour really put everything in perspective for me, because walking
A find!
Within about two hours at the dig, Martín the tech and I found this carnivore tooth . . . well, really, he found it . . . but I was there at the time. around the area, you can see bones EVERYWHERE. (In an hour's walk, I found several massive piles of bones that no one had found before.) Working with them, day in and day out, you sort of even forget what they are. When Juan showed me these bones and explained that it was one found at this site, had this height and weight probably, hunted in this manner, etc., you start to remember, Oh yeah, these were huge, mind-blowing creatures that lived millions of years ago. It was definitely a great way to finish my experience.
And beyond the chance just to work at the site, the people there are unbelievably nice. (When you come to work at the site, they actually personally pick you up from Neuquén and drop you back off there.) Sometimes when we needed to take a break from the work, we'd just sit in the center and all share some mate. Besides just the bones, I'm going to remember the friends I made over my short stay there.
This is all to say, if you're traveling through Argentina and have any interest in dinosaurs at all, this is definitely a unique expereince that you
Preparation
One of my favorite activities was actuall preparation, which is removing and cleaning the bones from the plaster jacket and the surrounding rock once they´ve been taking from the site. Very tedious, but you´re working directly with the bones. can't miss. There are two other centers in the area, but they don't even come close to offering this intimate experience right up close to the bones and the paleontologists. I highly recommend it. Tell 'em Andy sent you.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0959s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
CQ
non-member comment
Sooo.... I cried when I read this. Not even kidding. I love dinosaurs. And officially decided if I don't do this sometime in the next 8 years, life isn't worth living. Can't WAIT for the stories... and my present?