Pages

Guide to Patagonia's Monsters & Mysterious beings

I have written a book on this intriguing subject which has just been published.
In this blog I will post excerpts and other interesting texts on this fascinating subject.

Austin Whittall


Monday, November 23, 2009

Patagonian living dinosaurs

 

I have read countless books while researching mine. One of them, a charming dictionary on the language of the Patagonian natives (the Tehuelche groups) by the late Patagonian historian Rodolfo Casamiquela [1], has a map which in the Terra Magellanica (i.e. what is now Patagonia) shows a hunting party shooting at a couple of ñandú and some very strange animals.

extant dinosaurs in Patagonia

Strange Patagonian beings on an ancient map. From [1].


There are two groups of these creatures , one on the upper left of the map, just above Villarica volcano and the other to the east of the Desaguadero River.

The first group has a dinosaur look with short front paws and long hind legs and a long neck. They look very “T-Rex” to me.

The second group, with a smaller head and long front legs has a “brontosaurus” look.

Of course, we all know that dinosaurs died over 65 million years ago. But isn’t it surprising that a XVIth engraver drew these animals so clearly?

A few days ago I posted about Desceliers’ 1546 map, and did not include any comment regarding a small portion of it -which can be seen in the upper left corner of the map- because it was too far north to be a part of Patagonia. Today I will post the image, enlarged, (see below):

Desceliers map

Detail of Desceliers 1546 World Map showing Dinosaur(?). From [2]


What is this amazing creature? It looks very reptilian, but does it have wings? is its head wraped around a tree trunk? Or is it the tail?

I love playing around with old maps!

Bibliography.

[1] Casamiquela, R., (2008). Diccionario Tehuelche. Va. Adelina: Patagonia Sur Libros.
[2] National Library of Australia. World maps. Early works to 1800. Facsimiles. Australia. Discovery and exploration. Call Number: MAP RM 567.


Lea este post en español

Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

1 comment:

  1. Amazing. If they were dinosaurs, what species could these creatures be?

    ReplyDelete

Hits since Sept. 2009:
Copyright © 2009-2018 by Austin Victor Whittall.
Todos los derechos reservados por Austin Whittall para esta edición en idioma español y / o inglés. No se permite la reproducción parcial o total, el almacenamiento, el alquiler, la transmisión o la transformación de este libro, en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, sea electrónico o mecánico, mediante fotocopias, digitalización u otros métodos, sin el permiso previo y escrito del autor, excepto por un periodista, quien puede tomar cortos pasajes para ser usados en un comentario sobre esta obra para ser publicado en una revista o periódico. Su infracción está penada por las leyes 11.723 y 25.446.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before accessing this blog.

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

Patagonian Monsters - http://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/