The naturalist and his assistant kept digging, looking to find what they believed. The cave was large and had spent several days digging in various places. When they were about to give up the shovel dug up a hide with fur intact. "It's the skin of a milodon!”, exclaimed the enthusiastic naturalist to examine. They kept this and other findings in his saddlebags and swift went to the mountains that separated them from Argentina. And for good reason, the mylodon thought extinct for ten thousand years, but the skin and droppings were recently found. Had some living in some corner of the region?
So I imagined the scene when, over a hundred years ago, Francisco Moreno made the discovery in the place where I was, Milodon Cave, in southern Chile.
The controversial finding was that many sostuvieran in that continent was still alive some mylodon. English expedition was organized to look, but nothing.
Together with my wife, biologist, we decided to visit the border area near the city of Puerto Natales. There are many interesting things to see there, milodones well ... The main attraction of the region is the monumental massif Torres de Paine. People all over the world come to hike for those stone towers that rise almost from scratch on a plain off-axis of the ridge. Twenty thousand years ago, with the latest expansion of the ice, they covered the whole area and its weight and force producing the stone cut narrow valleys with nearly vertical walls and, in the surrounding plain, left their mark sinking field. In the next ten thousand years were retreating ice. The meltwater produced lakes and long valleys were flooded by the sea, forming endless fjords. The retreat also brought life, first plant, then insects and birds and finally mammals. Among them, occasionally a very large walked on two legs, aspect related to the bear but lazy, that was the mylodon. There they lived and multiplied until the continued retreat of ice also attracted to his executioner.
There they lived and multiplied until the continued retreat of ice also attracted to his executioner
To visit Torres del Paine is necessary to stay in the same National Park as the distances are large. We choose the Estancia El Lazo, where we were greeted with the pin drank Chilean pisco sour at the window watching the famous towers. The next day we took our van to Lake Grey from which to see the Glacier and beach encuya icebergs are brought by the strong wind. Eventually we reached a short hike to cover part of the massif called the Horns of Paine. We returned to The Loop in time to eat a lamb Fuegian. The next day we set out to make the long walk to the very base of the towers.
The territory of mylodon was protected by natural barriers. North Towers of Paine and impassable ice sheets, west and southern Pacific Ocean in the form of intricate fjords and east, the Andes. The first people arrived about ten thousand years ago. They probably crossed the mountains in the same place as Francisco Moreno, a low pass called Tennis Career. Before them opened fertile plains, sheltered from cold winds and excellent opportunities for hunting. A haven for these men of the Neolithic.
The trail goes through a very narrow valley, trees and a central stream brings cold water ice from the top of the towers
The walk to the bases of the towers was exhausting, about nine hours round trip, but we enjoyed every minute. The trail goes through a very narrow valley, trees and a central stream brings cold water ice from the top of the towers. As we moved, I could not help but imagine that this place must have been one of the last homes of the milodones. Perhaps there tried to keep out the enemy that was killing, Man. At the end of the walk we reached a glacial lake with an unforgettable view of the towers. We returned to the ranch, the next day would go to the south, to visit the famous cave.
The scientists were struck by the huge number of large animals, world, became extinct in the Pleistocene (between thirty and ten thousand years ago). They called this phenomenon the "extinction of the megafauna". But most striking was that, when he passed this information with archaeological data, is found on every continent extinctions coincided with the arrival of Homo Sapiens. For many, the man caused the extinction of large mammals and meek. Some scientists were even further; explained that the migration of man worldwide was due to the ongoing search for easy prey. Perhaps this was what attracted the first Aborigines to the land of the milodones. Slugs and meaty ideal were hunting the hunters. Perhaps milodones persecuted to extinction.
We arrived at the cave in the afternoon, there were few people, that allowed the wildlife we ??could save more time. He explained that it had made extensive excavations in the cave, which showed that until about nine thousand years the cave was inhabited by milodones, there probably hibernating. In contrast the upper layers, Latest, showed only human habitation. This means that humans moved to the cave milodones. The finding brought up the subject of leather and excrement that Moreno had done in that place. The warden did not believe the milodones have survived beyond the seven thousand years before Christ and that there was no other evidence of survival either there or elsewhere in the region. Recent appearance on the findings we had explained that it was cold and humidity rise.
As, from the darkness inside, took a photo outside the profile cut by the mouth of the cave, I imagined that there vivíieron the first inhabitants of the region and the diet should not be only milodones but also of American horses, gliptodones, toxodones and other South American species, makes all missing, just, some nine thousand years. "A rogue that Moreno", said the guard Chilean wildlife, sacándome of my thoughts, "He took what he found here to who knows where in Argentina." I knew where.
On my return to Buenos Aires went to the museum that Moreno himself had founded. Some scientific friends who work there showed me the famous leather. It really seemed now, had every hair in perfect condition. Most interesting was the fact that I got. Recently, to end the controversy, he had proof of Carbon 14 to date its age. "How did?¨ I asked with great interest. The answer was that the leather and excrement were between ten and eleven thousand years. "Then it is impossible to be any live, ¿no?”. "It's difficult but not impossible" my friend replied enigmatically. It was then that I devised the plot of one of the stories of my next book: "The last mylodon".
Coordinates of the Milodon Cave: S 51gr 33min 47seg; Or 72gr 37min 17seg
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Gerardo Bartolomé traveler and writer is. To learn more about him and his work go to www.GerardoBartolome.com
