Llumu the Patagonian River Pig

While writing for my website on Argentina's National Highway No. 40 (Ruta 40), about the things to visit and do close to the town of Las Lajas in the northern part of Patagonia, in the province of Neuquén, I came across a very odd river name, which did not sound like a Spanish word or a local native Mapuche word either, actually it is the same word repeated: "yumu yumu". The map below shows the location (the river coming in from the left).

 

It is the name of a stream, which flows in a West to East direction, down from the Andes, towards the Atlantic, down the slopes of a hill named Butahuao (2,578 m - 8,452 ft.). By the way, Butahuao is the combination of two Mapuche words: "Buta" = Big and "huao" = gully.

The river crosses Neuquén provincial highway No. 21, at Campana Mahuida (place name that combines a Spanish word Campana = bell and Mahuida, Mapuche word = hill), 54 kilometers (33 miles) northwests of Las Lajas (Spanish words: The Shale in plural).

The place name repeats a Mapuche word according to Anthropologist and Historian Rodolfo Casamiquela [1]. He cites one of the few inhabitants of the region, Manuel Quinchao (note his Mapuche surname), from Chenque Cura, near Las Lajas. Mr. Quinchao said that it is the word is actually "llamü", the name of an animal, "a creature similar to a hog" [1].

There is another version which is also mentioned by Casamiquela, and he quotes Harrington-Benigar and Groeber, in which the llamü is not a pig but a crab, a freshwater crab.

I have seen these endemic crabs in the Patagonian lakes (see the photograph below where I am holding one in my hand and a close up shot on a stone):

Patagonian freshwater lake crab (Lake Nahuel Huapi). Copyright © 2014 by Austin Whittall

In case you are not too familiar with Spanish and Argentine Spanish in particular, the double "L" or "LL" is pronounced all over the Spanish speaking world -except Argentina- as the English "Y" in "Yes" (so "llumü" would sound like "You-moo" in English).

However, the Argentine Spanish pronounciation has a different sound for the double "L". It sounds like the "Sh" in "Show", and in fact it sounds identical to the Spanish pronounciation of the letter "Y".

By the way, the double "L" is not ever pronounced in the way that the double "L" in "million" is pronounced in English. So a "Llama" is not a "lama" but a "Shama" (Argentina) or a "Yama" (rest of Spanish speaking countries).

Argentines pronounce "LL" and "Y" with the same sound, the rest of Spanish speakers have two distinct sounds for those phonemes. That is why "llamü" became "yumu", (an Argentine pronounces both words in the same way: "Shoe-moo"). And this is the reason why a word written with a double "L" changed to a "Y".

In case you wonder why Argentines pronounce the language differently (Uruguayans do to), it is due to the enormous influx of Italian migrants to both countries in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Half the Argentine population has Italian blood in their veins. So the Italian accent mixed with the Spanish one, softening it. (you can hear it in this Video spoken in "Argentino" or Argentine Spanish).

But getting back to our pig or is it a crab? Which is the correct interpretation? To name a stream after the crabs that live in it sounds quite reasonble. So does naming a river after pigs. But the point is that pigs were not native animals. They were brought to America by the Spaniards. The Mapuche word for pig, hog is "Sanchu" (san-chew) which is the phonetic rendering of the Spanish word for pig: "Chancho" (chan-chou). This is logical, they adopted the Spanish word for pig.

Yes, there was a wild pig, native to America which is now extinct in Patagonia, but was known to the Mapuche: the Pecari tajacu or Collared Peccary (pictured below), which had different Mapuche names: sohue, sürse, sañhue, sanue, chanue, sane, saino. Distinct from the "Sanchu" name given to Eurasian pigs.

So what was the yumu, a pig or some other creature?

I have my doubts, I have come across the following explanations, all duly backed by bibliography:

• "Llamü are little frogs of different sizes that lived in the rushes" [2]
• Cuchi is another name for pig, and is used in Cuchivilu, or cuchi = pig, vilu = snake, the Snake-hog creature of Patagonian lakes.
• Llamü according to a nineteenth century dictionary means "blind" [3]
• Yumu derives from the Mapuche word "yumid", to shine, bright, glistening, shiny. [4] Which would be appropriate for a brook.

The question will remain open for now.

Sources

[1] Casamiquela, R., (2003). Toponimia indígena de la Provincia del Neuquén pp. 57
[2] Martin Alonqueo, (1985). Mapuche: ayer-hoy, Editorial San Francisco, pp. 135
[3] Andrés Febrés, Antonio Hernández, (1846), Diccionario hispano chileno
[4] Hasler Juan A. Topónimos Mapuches. AUCh, °5 serie N°

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

More Evidence on Prehispanic Patagonian horses

 

Cerro Johny, Chile, a piece of Tehuelche painted hide.

During my recent book signing event at the recent "Feria del Libro", I enjoyed browsing some books at the stand of "Patagonia Sur Libros", whose editor, Mario Pazos kindly exhibited my books and gave me the chance to sign books at his stand. As the name suggests (Patagonia Sur = South Patagonia), the books he exhibited and had on sale, of many publishers, some from Patagonia, dealt with the big "P", Patagonia. So I went on a mini buying spree and purchased some hard to get books.

A new book and an interesting piece of information

Among these books was one by Mario Echeverría Baleta about a native mummy found inside a cave by Lake Argentino close to the modern day town of El Calafate (Santa Cruz, Argentina).
Here, during February 1877, Argentine scientist Francisco Pascasio Moreno (aka "Perito" Moreno) while navigating the lake, took shelter on its southern shore and decided to explore the surroundings. He came across the mummy which he took back to the La Plata Museum in Buenos Aires province.

Echeverría Baleta describes the mummy, the caves and gives other interesting information. He also talks about the "Quillango" (key-djan-go) which was the typical Tehuelche native fur cloak. They made it from furs of different animals (skunks, foxes) but they prefered the soft wool of baby guanacos -known as "chulengo". Guanacos are a wild variety of South American camelid, from which the better known llama and alpaca were domesticated.

Quillango, the Tehuelche fur cape

Quillangos were large rectangular pieces, made from many "chulengo" furs sewn together. They were worn with the woolly fur towards the inside, and the leathery part towards the outside. This external leather surface was usually painted with native mottiffs using mineral pigments (yellow, blue, red, ochre, black). Some of these survive and an example is shown below together with some of the colorfull motifs:

Samples of Quillango paintings and a complete Quillango. From [2].

The purpose of these furry chulengo capes was to keep the user nice and warm in the hostile windswept Patagonian steppes. They were wrapped around the body and were far superior to any European garment. Patagonian Pioneers in the late 1800s and early 1900s bought them by the hundreds from the Tehuelche to keep warm.

The Tehuelche also made mortuary Quillangos, shrouds, to wrap the dead, these were made from horse hides. Horses had a special spiritual meaning, as conveyors of the spirit into the afterworld. As with the Mapuche natives of Northern Chilean Patagonia, the Tehuelche used to sacrifice several horses (including the dead person's horse) during the burial ceremonies. These were to assist the deceased in their journey into the afterworld.

The Pali Aike Shroud: Patagonian horses?

The book, while mentioning the mummy and quillangos adds an interesting comment, which I transcribe below (Echeverría Baleta writing in first person):

"I have seen at the Instituto de la Patagonia at Punta Arenas, Chile, a piece of horse hide belonging to a Tehuelche burial found in the region of Pali Aike. It is decorated with beautiful drawings, the main figure being the "karrukeuek" (shapes of a carancho). The dating done in London gives it an age of 450 years BP. There are some errors here. In the first place, the identification. In the report given by the laboratory it says that it is a hide of Lama guanicoe (guanaco). However the guanaco do not have hair but wool and this specific hide has hair and not precisely the color of guanaco's [wool]. Furthermore it is thicker, just like that of horses. And in second place, the chronology. The dating mentioned corresponds approximately to the year 1450, but during that period no horses were known in South America."[1]

It is clear that the radiocarbon dating is correct 450 BP = 1450 C.E., and that the British scientists knowing that there were no horses in Patagonia prior to the discovery of America by Spaniards in 1492 (actually horses arrived in Southern Patagonia in the mid 1700s), assigned the piece of fur to a guanaco.

Echeverría Baleta on the other hand, knowing it is a piece of horse hide, thinks that the age is wrong and should be mor recent.

Both are wrong, and refuse to see what is clear: given Echeverría Baleta's comment on the fact that it is not woolly but hairy and that these hairs a thick and not soft, that the colour is also wrong, I wonder... what if it was a horse, a horse from 1450?

As I have posted before there were probably hoses in Southern Patagonia prior to the arrival of the Saniards. This is some more evidence that buttresses that theory.

I have tried to identify this "Pali Aiken" hide but found nothing, it is not from there, but from another site, close by where in the mid 1970s, a body was found:[2]

• Wearing "a non-tanned Mortuary Cape" (so it would very likely be made from a horse hide).
• It is the oldest known Quillango.
• It was found at Cerro Johny (Johny Hill, yes, with one "n") at the Ranch Estancia Brazo Norte, in Magallanes, Chile, close to the Pali Aike site.
• It shrouded an adult, who was mummified.
• "the design shows certain similarities with those painted on hose hides".
• The body was dated to 1400 - 1500 CE.

Patagonian Horses again

This evidence corroborates Echeverría Baleta's dating and the fact that it may be a horse hide (if the scientists were able to think outside of their mental boxes, they would see things with a clear view: if its design is like those painted on horse hides, it is used for the same purpose tha t a horse hide was used, it looks like one, then, even though it is dated to well before horses were introduced into Patagonia (and America) by the Spanish, then, it is a HORSE!

Some papers which I have not been able to get my hands on yet, were written about this finding, maybe they can shed some light on this issue:

Martinic B., Mateo. 1976 Hallazgo y excavación de una tumba Aónikenk en Cerro Johnny (Brazo Norte) Magallanes. Punta Arenas. An Inst. Pat :95-98,
Jackman, J. 1976 Apéndice I Examen y tratamiento de cueros provenientes de una tumba tehuelche. An Inst. Pat :99-101


Sources

[1] EcheverríaBaleta, Mario , (1995). La Momia del Cerro Gualicho, Cumacú, B. Aires.pp. 31
[2]Caviglia, Sergio, El arte de las mujeres Aónikénk y Gününa Küna - Kay Guaj'enk o Kay Gütrruj (Las Capas Pintadas). Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología XXVII (2002) 2003. B. Aires, pp. 50

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Monstruos de la Patagonia - Criptozoologia, Mitos & leyendas de la Patagonia
Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall ©

Horse Tracks in Ancient Patagonian Rock Art (which horses?)

 

The image above comes from Natalia Carden [1]. Fig. 10. It depicts: (A) a drawing of an ichnite of an extinct Hippidion sp. measuring 13 x 10 cm, found at Pehuen Có site in Buenos Aires. (B) Modern horse track –without shoe: 12 x 10 cm. (C) the tracks engraved at Alero El Galpón (each track about 10 x 10 cm).

This is another post in my series on the subject of the survival of native American horses until recent historic times. We all know that according to the “official” story, horses originated in America, and moved on towards Asia where they thrived while they became extinct in the Americas during the Late Pleistocene. The New World spent about 10.000 years without horses until the Europeans reintroduced horses after Columbus’ discovery of America in 1492. The horse spread through the Americas at the pace of its Conquistadors and reached the southernmost tip of the continent in the 1700s.

I have read an interesting paper by Natalia Carden (2009)[1], on Patagonian petroglyphs (rock carvings) that depict animal tracks, and, not so surprisingly, also horse tracks.

The image above is from her paper, which I will summarize below:

At Piedra de Museo, Santa Cruz, at the site known as Alero el Galpón (AEG), has several types of prints engraved in rock. Some of hem are cloven (i.e. guanaco prints), but others are definitively representations of one-digit ungulates such as horses.

Their hoofs are nearly circular and have a ‘V’ shaped notch on the rear part. The rocks have imprints that are very naturalistic as can be seen in the image above and image below (A). Other sites in Patagonia display similar designs but slightly more complex (B) and (C) below. Motif (C) has also been interpreted as a Labyrinth.

Comparison of Rock Art motifs by N. Carden [1]

Carden addresses the age of these petroglyphs and the problem they present: rock engravings are Holocene and date from about 4,000 to 2,000 B.P. At the AEG site, the rock has been dated to middle/late Holocene some 7,400 years B.P.

Both lines of evidence, according to Carden would mean that the rocks are far too old to represent modern Old World horses brought by the Europeans and too young to represent Hippidion saldiasi New World horses, as these became extinct several thousands of years earlier (11 to 10,000 years B.P).

To explain how / why the Patagonian Paleo-Indians depicted extinct horse hoofs, engraving them in stone, Carden discusses the issue in diachronic terms: the prints were painted from memory, and re-signified by these natives who had never seen them.

Drawings like (B) and (C) are deformed due to this “re-signification”. The “memory” mentioned above is apparently a “mythical history”, and the horses are symbols of a mysterious past and reinterpreted. She puts forward as evidence the fact that “... the presence of Pleistocene bone remains in Holocene layers from the Patagonian and Pampean regions implies that fossils were collected by humans[...] and probably reinterpreted and imbued with symbolic meanings” [2].

She adds that the site may have been a good hunting ground and that the track petroglyphs are part of the mythical symbology of the “place”.

A very neat theory, well documented which fits nicely into the official view of Patagonian prehistory.

However, I am not constrained by Academia and can allow myself to be less cautious and fling some wild theories into the open: what if... the Pleistocene bone remains found in Holocene layers actually belonged to “Pleistocene” animals who survived well into the Holocene, and when they died, laid their remains in those Holocene layers without any human hands placing them there (perhaps we humans helped them pass away with our spears and arrows).
The theory that our distant ancestors dug up megafaunal fossils and gathered them in assemblies is a bit far-fetched. The simple answer is that the native American horses were alive and kicking at that time.

And, they were depicted from nature in the rocks.

Sources

[1] Carden, Natalia. (2009), Prints on the Rocks: a study of the track representations from Piedra Museo Locality (Southern Patagonia), Rock Art Research 2009- Volume 26, Number 1, pp.

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Monstruos de la Patagonia - Criptozoologia, Mitos & leyendas de la Patagonia
Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall ©

The Chilludo - A Patagonian Yeti

Lon Chaney as the werewolf. Would The Chilludo look like him?

The Chilludo is another Patagonian hominid, which I mentioned briefly in a post (Patagonian Bigfoot?). Today’s entry will deal with this strangely named being.

Origin of the name

Though the word “chilludo” may seem to derive from the Spanish verb “chillar” which means to scream, to yell, to screech, to squeal or to squeak, it actually comes from a local Argentine word: “Chilludo: Said of people who have long straight and bristly hair or the body covered with this type of hair”.

The word is applied to sheep and goats that have long straight wool (Lincoln variety sheep are “chilludos” while Merino sheep are not).

Sightings

The only “old” source that I can find referring to it is in Gregorio Alvarez (1889-1986), who was Patagonia’s first native born to graduate as a Doctor in medicine in 1919. His book El Tronco de Oro compiles his anecdotes and experience during his years as a country doctor who rode about on horseback taking care of the ill children in the Andean region of Neuquén province.

Trivia: a dinosaur discovered in that region in 1991 bears the name Alvarezsaurus.

So, getting back to the Chilludo. Alvarez recorded it in the 1950s:

”The Chilludo” is the name of a giant that appeared for the first time at Colo Michi Co, a rugged place where the stones engraved by the ancient Pehunches can be found, and whose meaning is still a mystery. According to don Julio Della Cha, the first report of the apparition of The Chilludo was around 1950. A youth, upon seing it, lost his mind.
[...]
He is described like “a big man” covered with long hair (chillas), that runs and jumps about the mountain slopes and gullies; a kind of yeti or snowman like those seen in the Himalayas

He adds that in that same place, Colo Michi Co, a Hungarian miner named Bela Beico also went mad (Patagonian Cabin Fever?)

According to another source, this man, Della Cha, owned a ranch in the area, at Cancha Huinganco, close by, so the man existed.

The stones mentioned by Alvarez, engraved by the native Pehuenche Indians, can be seen online at the following site:
Colo Michi Co rock art, they date back to about 500 AD.

Sources

Gregorio Alvarez. (1981) El tronco de oro: folklore del Neuquén. pp. 116.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2012 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake Villarrica Monster

 
Llake Villarrica or, as the Mapuche called it "Mallolafquen" (from the words "mallo = white clay and "lafquen" = lake, is located in the Chilean province of Cautín, in Chile's northern Patagonia (39°15'S, 72°06'W). It is the source of the Toltén River (where giant water snakes have been sighted). As we will see below, it is also home to one (or more) strange creatures.

The lake

The lake's main axis is about 22 km long (14 mi.) in an east-west orientation, and its north-south axis is 11 km (7 mi.) wide. At its eastern tip is the city of Pucón, and on its occidental side is the town of Villarrica.

Villarrica was first settled by the Spaniards in the mid 1500s until the Mapuche razed the town in the early sixteenth century. The town gives its name to the lake and to nearby volcano Villarica (2.840 m - 9,311 ft.), just south of the lake.

Its surface area is 176 km² (68 sq.mi.) and its mean depth is 120 m (393 ft. - 721 ft.) at the foot of the Andes.

The monster

There is an online video at Youtube that shows what is described as the "monster at Lake Villarrica", and which I have embedded below: [1]

Video of Villarrica Lake monster. [1]

The images show something with a cylindrical shape, much longer than its diameter, similar to a tree trunk.

I would like to point out that the lake is getting more and more contaminated from several sources (raw urban sewage, fertilizers washed in from the surrounding fields, etc.), these have packed the lake full of nutrients that have promoted an algal bloom (that is, an "eutrophication" process in the lake. This has not only damaged the water quality (polluted and now more turbid) but also promoted a runaway growth of algae.[2]

Could the so called monster be a bunch of floating weeds pushed by the waves and the wind? is it a mass of algae rotting on the surface? is it just a tree trunk? or could it be some kind of unknown herbivore aquatic mammal flourishing on the abundant aquatic vegetation?

A real mystery.

Sources.

[1] Mounstro del Lago Villarrica [sic] por Aguscanal.
[2]Administrador. (2010). ALERTA: deterioro de la calidad de las aguas del Lago Villarrica. 26.08.2010.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Tolten River creature

 

During the last week of January 2003, there were some strange sightings along the Toltén River in Chile. Today we will post about them, and also make Toltén our "Lake (actually River) of the Week".

The river

Toltén is a river, 230 km (143 mi.) long that flows into the Pacific Ocean in a east-west direction, cutting across Chile in the province of Cautín, IX^th Region, Araucania.

At one time it marked the border between the Mapuche (north) and Huilliche (south) people of Precolumbian Chile.

Its sources are at the western tip of Lake Villarica, at 230 m (754 ft.) above sea level.

The sightings

A family that was having a picnic by the side of the river in the Municipality (i.e. County or “comuna”) of Toltén, which is the last stretch of the river before it flows into the sea when:

from the waters a huge serpent emerged –apparently an anaconda- that stared at them from head to toes with the eyes of a murderer and a long fang[1]

This happened on January 26, and as told by one of the family members, Seferino Curihuanca (or Curihuinca), they were at “Toltén Chico” (according to [1]) or by the cemetery of “Toltén Viejo” (according to [2]), (39°11'S, 73°12'W), when they saw:

small waves in the river […] which was not normal and, surprising us, a serpent-like head popped out about forty centimeters [16 in.] out of the water […] it was about three meters long [9.8 ft.] and extremely thick like thirty centimeters diameter [1 ft.] [1]

They threw stones at it and forced it to get out of the river but lost its tracks on the shore after it slithered into the bushes.[1]

Seferino says that he had heard rumors that somebody living in the town of Villarrica (upstream along the Toltén) illegally introduced two anacondas from abroad and both of them escaped. Of course the owner did not tell the police to avoid being fined for his actions.

Mrs. Yolanda Curihuinca (same surname as Seferino, perhaps his wife?) later phoned the Police and described the creature as: “A monster with a big head, whose eyes were prominent, its skin was dark brown and measured 6 meters [19.6 ft.].” [3]

Notice that in Yolanda's version, the snake is twice as long as in Seferino's version.

After the incident, the local police and firemen looked for the snake but did not find any traces of it. The police also admitted that they had heard about the rumor regarding escaped anacondas, but nobody has formally informed them of any incidents.[1]

Though they searched the area, they did not use boats so it was not a very thorough search [2] yet the police said that the whole incident “was a collective psicosis […] more ficticious than real [2].

More sightings

After the Curihuinca sighting, fifteen other witnesses came forward saying that they had seen it too: [2]

• At Frutillar, 2 km from Toltén they saw a giant creature on the river shore that later hid among the rushes close to the cemetery of Toltén Viejo
• At Tenencia, a neighbor told the Police about a snake and that several anglers who were fishing on the river bank ran away because they were afraid it would catch them

During the months of February and March 2003, more "snakes" were seen in the area, but further south, (132 km - 82mi.) from Toltén, on an independent river basin, at Lake Ranco.

Sources.

[1] La Cuarta. Santiago. Chile. 28.01.2003. Anaconda de tres metros dejó helada a familia que paseaba en el río Toltén.
[2] Escobar, P. Diario Austral. Valdivia. Chile. 15.06.2004. El día que Toltén enloqueció
[3] Hallazgos de la criptozoologia

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Comparative sizes different beasts

 

Comparative sizes, man, tapir, bison, giant otter, spectacled bear. Adapted from [1]

Relative sizes of some of the creatures mentioned in this blog. In different posts I have mentioned these real animals suggesting that they could be the explanation for or the source of some of Patagonia's mythical beasts. These are, from left to right:

- Mountain Tapir
- American Bison
- Giant River Otter
- Spectacled Bear

Source.

[1] I Combined and adapted different sketches from National Geographic site.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Saapaim - The Fuegian sloth

 
The Saapaim is a strange creature, that was reported as living in Tierra del Fuego by Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges in the 1860s. He took over the Mission at Ushuaia bay, which is nowadays the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. Although I have already posted about it, (Mysterious Fuegian creature: Saapaim), I came across the original source of Bridge's report.

Below is the text where the creature is mentioned: [1]



Thomas'son, Lucas, had a different opinion: [2]



Lucs said it was a coipo, which is an animal that resembles both a beaver and an otter.

Bibliography.

[1] Bridges, T. (1869). Fireland and its people. The South American Missionary Magazine. Vol III. July, 1, 1869. pp. 113.
[2] Bridges, L. (1947). Uttermost part of the earth. Dutton. pp. 447.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake Paimun creature

 

Map of Lake Paimun Area. Austin Whittall

Lake Paimun is actually the northern arm of Lake Huechulafquen (which is the abode of the Huechulito lake creature), it is also close Aucapan (which is haunted by another monster).

With a surface area of 29.2 km² (11.3 sq. mi.) it has a roughly semi-circular shape; it is 14 km (8.7 mi.) long and not more than 2 km (1.2 mi.) wide. A calm, deep lake, with a spectacular view of Lanín volcano.

Its name, in Mapuche language means "lacking love". It derives from the words Pay, the familiar and tender word that children use to name their mothers or older women that should be respected or loved; and the word mun, which means to need, to deserve. Hence, Paimun = orphan, who needs a mother, lacking love.[4]

A rather strange name for a lake!

Paimun (39°43'S, 71°35'W) joins Lake Huechulafquen at the Angostura Pichi Cuyín (Small Apple Narrows), which is partly filled in by landslides along the valley of the Rucu Leufu River, which is fed by the glaciers on the Lanín Volcano (3.776 m - 12,380 ft.). These landslides must have provoked tsunamis in the lakes and severe flooding.[1]

Trelque the "Cuero" of Lake Paimun.

According to local folklorist, Gregorio Alvarez, this tiny lake is said to be the home of a "lake genie" or Trelque. This creature lived in the deep waters of Paimun and stalked the women who came close to its shores.

Trelque is the Mapuche word for "hide" (in Spanish = Cuero)[3]; and I have written about the cuero in previous posts. However, it seems to me that this particular Trelque is not the usual kind of cuero.

The local myth, as told by Alvarez, is the following:

One day, while a young girl named Huala, was filling her flask by the lake, "a claw suddenly emerged from the shore and grabbed her firmly, dragging her to the deepest part of a pool [...] Huala, like so many others, had been submerged by the so called "cuero".[2]

Huala was taken by Trelque to a cave in the deepest part of a sheer cliff, and there she saw the decapitated remains of other victims of this monster.[2]

The story then goes on to tell that Trelque morphed into a handsome man and told Huala that he was in love with her, and that he would not kill her. As she wanted to go back to her home, he used his magic powers to keep her close but happy: he turned her into an aquatic bird, the Huala.

It is interesting to note that the Trelque creature, unlike the regular variety of Cuero, lived in a cave and out of the water, indicating an amphibious being. This is not a stingray, it is another kind of monster.

Bibliography.

[1] Mancino, C., (2007). Thesis. Online
[2] Alvarez, G. (1969). Donde estuvo el Paraiso. Ed. Pehuén. pp. 167-169.
[3] Augusta, F., (1916). Diccionario Araucano - Español y Español - Araucano. Santiago. Impr. Universitaria. pp. 94.
[4] San Martín, F., (1919). Neuquén. Impr. Rodríguez Giles.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Marine Ground Sloths

 

Marine sloth. From: [4]

A very interesting yet unknown fact about the sloth family is that there was an amphibious sloth!

The first creature of this sea-going sloth group, discovered in the late 1970s, was named Thalassocnus natans [1] , which means “slow-swimmer of the sea” (thalassos is Greek for “sea”, ocnos for “slow”, and natans is Latin for “swimming”).

We now know that there were at least five of these swimming sloths that lived along the Peruvian sea coast between 6 and 1.5 Million years ago. This was a surprising discovery because all known sloths until then, were terrestrial.
They probabily started out as beach-combing animals and then evolved into sea-going beings that waded or swam into the Pacific Ocean where they fed on algae and other sea plants.

Thalassocnus had a series of features such as the ability to move its tail up and down as an aid in swimming, the way otters do.

Another species of this group known as T. yaucensis had evolved into a creature that resembled the sea lion.

It had evolved well to adapt to its marine environment, its jaws grew longer and slimmer in comparison to its terrestrial relatives, perhaps to allow it to graze on the kelp with slender jaws and strong lips while it grasped the seabed with its claws.

The later species have less dental erosion (striae) on their teeth than the older ones, which may indicate less sand (which caused these grooves in their teeth enamel) in their diet, and therefore, that they swam further away from the shore to feed.

The dry coastline which offered little food may have driven these sloths to the sea, where marine plants grew in abundance.[2]

An interesting question is whether it had a fur (like seals or sea going otters) or was it “naked” like whales and sirenids. Perhaps it shed the thick fur of the ground sloths for a lighter pelt. It may have also developed a thick layer of fat under its skin.

Marine sloths and Patagonian lake monsters

No marine sloth remains have been found in Patagonia or in southern or central Chile, so we can not state that extant members of this group may have originated the myths regarding Patagonian lake monsters.

However, it would not be too far fetched to believe that they expanded southwards, along the Pacific rim, towards Southern Chile.

There they could have continued their evolution, and even become fresh water creatures.

These may have later, (after the Ice Ages) colonized the newly formed Patagonian lakes originating the "lake monster" myths in Patagonia.

Of course, all of the above is speculation and has no backing whatsoever. But it is an interesting thought. Perhaps one day marine sloth remains may be uncovered in the region.

For those interested in the science details of the "real" Peruvian marine sloth, you should read Muzion’s paper to which a link is given below [3].

Bibliography.

[1] Muizon, C. de & McDonald, H. G. (1995). An aquatic sloth from the Pliocene of Peru. Nature 375, 224-227. Cited in: Ten things you didn't know about sloths. 30.01.07. Darren Naish. Tetrapodzoology.
[2] The Giant Swimming Sloths of South America. 07.02.07. Brian Switek. Laelaps.
[3] Christian de Muzion, H. Gregory McDonald, Rodolfo Salas, and Mario Urbina,(2004). The youngest species of the aquatic sloth thalassocnus and a reassessment of the relationships of the nothrothere sloths (mammalia: xenarthra). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(2):387–397, June 2004 q 2004 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
[4] Image source: http://darwiniana.org/NewFossilMammals.html

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Another creature at Lake Lacar

 

Arrayanes Hotel, and Lake Lacar. From [4]

More strange creatures at Lake Lacar. I have already posted on this lake, and included it as my Lake of the Week, mentioned its Lake Lacar creature. Today I read some interesting information on other sightings dating back to the late 1950's .

Arrayan Hotel

Reneé Dickinson [1] built a beautiful hotel "Hostería Arrayan", in 1939, which overlooked Lake Lacar very close to the town of San Martín de los Andes in the Argentine province of Neuqueén.

She died a few years later of cancer (1943) and her brother Barney (1913-1981) and his wife took over the lodge. He was a RAF veteran and ran the place for many years. [1] [2]

The hotel, which is still open though it does not belong any longer to the Dickinson family, is set about 250 meters (800 ft.) above the lake, close to its eastern tip (see map above), and commands a beautiful view of the lake (photograph above).

Barney Dickingson's sightings

After reading some articles on Nessie (the Loch Ness creature), in 1959 Barney Dickinson wrote a letter to the Illustrated London news and told about his sightings.[3]

He also wrote in 1961 [4] to Mr. Burton about his experiences.

He used to sit on the hotel's balcony, in the evenings, watching the scenery and the lake, which on very calm days was:

so calm, in fact, that the surrounding mountains are reflected with extraordinary clarity. There is relatively little traffic on Lago Lacar, and on such days, any boat, or any of the aquatic birds - as well as rising fish - leave unmistakable distrubances on the glassy surface.

The extremely few aquatic animals of any size - it is said that a species of otter still survives here, though I have not yet seen one — can be ruled out, I think . . . Nevertheless, from time to time, there appear queer-looking turbulences [4]

He then goes on to mention the "Cuero" myth.

I am trying to get the original articles, to be able to read them completely. When I do, I will post them here.

Bibliography

[1] The South American Handbook. (1969) Vol 60, Trade & Travel Publications. Ltd. pp.156
[2] Hosteria Arrayan website.
[3] Peter Costello. (1974). In search of lake monsters. Garnstone Press.
[4] Maurice Burton. (1961). The elusive monster: an analysis of the evidence form Loch Ness. Hart-Davis, pp. 94+

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Water Bulls in northern Neuquen

 
Another post on Water Bulls, this time in northern Neuquen Province.

They are taken from local stories told to Argentine folklorist Berta Vidal de Battini in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and published in 1984, both are very similar to others that I have included in previous posts on "lake bulls" (see my Everything you ever wanted to know about...Lake Bulls or Water Bulls).

Bull at Tres Chorros.

At Tres Chorros, Ñorquin, in the Argentine province of Neuquen, the locals reported in 1952, a "Water bull".
The story is told by Berta Vidal de Battini, [1], as follows:

They say that in the lagoon close to this place, lives a black bull. Many neighbors have seen it in the middle of the lake and walking in the fields that surround it.
Sometimes it gets together with other animals [...] They say that in several lakes in the region there are bulls that take care of them. Also other animals like horses, cows and pigs come out [of the lakes].
Many people have seen them but they can never be lassoed.[1]

Bull at Los Miches.

At Los Miches (37°14'S,70°52'W), in Neuquen, another story compiled in 1949 mentions the "Bull with the golden horns at Guanaco Lagoon":

'I have 'eard that in that lagoon there are bad things sir. [my uncle] told me as we passed by the lagoon that in it lived a bull, muddy, hairless, terribly fierece and almost without the shape of an animal.
That when a cow went in to the lake to drink water, it always came out pregnant by this bull and that when the cow was to give birth, it always died.
He said that he had seen it once, when the bull went into the lake and that it got lost in the water'.[1]

Comments.

These two lakes are in the area just by the foot of the Andes and very close to another lake with strange creatures (Lake Caviahue). Both are on the Atlantic side of the continental divide and in an area with a stron influence of the Mapuche culture.
Tres Chorros flows into the Truquico River and from there into the Neuquen River.

They are also relatively close to the northern basin of the Colorado River, home to a strange aquatic creature.

The interesting creature is the "Los Miches" being, a bald dirty monster that does not even resemble a bull. Which may indicate that the animal is not a bull (perhaps some variety of tapir -hence the lack of hair?). Muddy seems to imply a creature that likes to roll about in the mud (notice the "pigs" mentioned at Los Guanacos; pigs are barrel shaped stout creatures, just like tapirs.). This may indicate some tapir - lake monster connection, as I have suggested in previous posts (Patagonian Tapir).

Map of both locations: Tres Chorros and Los Miches.

Bibliography.

[1] Berta Vidal de Battini (1984). Cuentos y Leyendas Populares de la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Ed. Culturales Argentinas Vol VII. pp. 1366 and 1367.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake Tar monsters

 
This weekend I read an interesting article [1] on an aquatic monster at Lake Tar, which I had not heard about before and which may throw some light on an incident reported by Clemente Onelli during his 1922 Plesiosaur expedition. Lets take a look at this "sighting":

Lake Tar

This lake (49° 15' S; 72° 0' W) is located on the Patagonian steppe, in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz. It drains west into Lake San Martin and from there into the Pacific Ocean. It is set at 218 m above sea level (714 ft. ) and it has a surface area of 53 km² (20 sq.mi.). Its name, in the native Tehuelche language, means "dirty" due to the murky color of its waters. [2]

The article, from which I will quote extensively as I have not been able to find the original publication.

Argentine historian Manuel Llarás Samitier wrote this story in the now defunct magazine "Argentina Austral" about 50 years ago [*]:

A mysterious halo floated over the region of Lake Tar since before the days of the colonization of the wide mountainous region formed by the Santa Cruz lakes. It is known that the natives entered the neighborhood reluctantly and they did not hide this feeling. They said that they did not like to hunt in the fields close to those lakes because in their waters monstrous animals lived [...] the blurred versions mentioned a very large animal and the local Indians compared it to a big bellied horse that had a long neck without a mane that used to come out [of the lake] to graze on the grassy shores on the nights on which the moon shined" [1]

Llarás Samitier wrote about a very strange incident which happened in 1913, which, is coincidential with an alleged sighting mentioned by Clement Onelli during the plesiosaur expedition of 1922. As usual, it seems that Onelli, mixed up the names and forgot the place. Though he got the date right.

The incident is the following (Llar&aacut;as Samitier's story is in italics and taken from [1]):

The foreman of a sheep ranch close to lake tar asked two of his men, who were from the Argentine province of Corrientes (a sub-tropical province in northeastern Argentina, along the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers) to go with a local native Indian guide to search for some lost animals.
They followed the tracks and finally arrived at Lake Tar. As it was a cold and windy afternoon, and the weather was getting worse, they camped behind some shrubs about 100 m (300 ft.) from the lake's shore.
Before dawn, a strange noise woke them up:

despite the whistling of the wind they clearly heard as if one or several animals were splashing in the mud by the [lake's] shore. The moon was shining in the sky so they did not take long to see two gigantic shadows that passed in front of them, and they observed that as they walked, they entertained themselves by biting at the grass, lifting and turning their long necks [...] some times the monsters would lift their heads simultaneously, as if to capture some strange noise, and then they would keep on grazing calmly."

One of the men, named Florencio Almada wanted to get closer to see the better, but his companions did not let him do so. The native said that they were the famous giant horses of Lake Tar.

Almada was not satisfied, and at dawn, when the noises had quieted down, he went to look at the tracks by the shore, and found, well printed in the mud, the foot steps of animals that he later described as similar to those of gigantic yacarés.

Yacaré (Caiman yacare); is a species of caiman -crocodile- native to South America, and which is also found in Corrientes, the place where Almada was born and bred.

He had hunted them in the past and he now wanted to hunt the "monsters" with the help of his companions, they did not do so.

Back at the ranch, Almada became obsessed with the beasts and the other ranch hands did not believe his story. This was worsened by the silence of his two companions, who did not want to talk about the sighting. As the situation worsened, the foreman gave him permission to go back to the lake to hunt his monsters. He left for the lake:

with a pair of lassos, boleadoras [a local weapon], knife and revolver [...] before leaving he threatened his colleagues : if he could not bring the monster back alive, he would have the pleasure of inviting those who had mocked him, to eat the grilled ribs of a giant crocodile

After a couple of days, the foreman became worried when Almada did not return, so he went out to search for him with the Indian and another man:

When the arrived, they found nothing [...] night fell without any news. Before dawn they lit a bonfire to show their position to the missing man. Nothing. With the first lights of sunrise they saw some caranchos [carrion eating birds] flying over the lake's shore. When they got closer they saw Almada's horse floating in the water. The animal seemed to have been dragged more than 100 m [300 ft.] in the mud. On its saddle they found a piece of lasso. But of Almada, not even a miserable "Moon" brand Alpargata [cheap kind of shoe]. They also found the revolver with the six used bullets, evidence that he had shot before using the lasso. [1]

It does not surprise me to notice that the animals are not carnivores, but herbivores, something that I have mentioned before (when addressing the sustainability -i.e. survival- issue): the lake monsters are grass eaters. By the way, Tar was a place where the natives camped, as it had good pasture for their horses [3].

Futhermore, a similar event was reported in 1957 at Lake Viedma which is 42 km (27 mi.) south of Lake Tar. Viedma flows east towards the Atlantic Ocean and is separated from Tar by the continental divide which rises to about 750 m (2.460 ft.) above sea level.


[*] Comments:

I have not been able to find the full article, but Google books has allowed me to identify the original source: Argentina Austral, v. 38, n.os 429-434 - 1967. As the following image shows:



Source: Online, Google Books.

I believe that the article by Samitier is "Realidad y leyenda del mylodon" and it is on page 68 of the above mentioned magazine. Should anyone come across it, please let me know. Thank you.

Bibliography.
[1] Mendoza, Roberto. 2009. Buscando al Plesiosaurio hecho en la Patagonia. Nucleo. Producción y Desarrollo Sustentable. Año 1, N° 6. June 2009. pp. 37+
[2] Gaea. (1946). Geografía de la República Argentina. Vol. 7, No. 2. By Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Geográficos Gaea. Coni. Ed. pp. 588.
[3] Moreno, F., (2007). Exploración de la Patagonia Sur II: el lago Argentino y los Andes meridionales. 1877. B. Aires: Continente.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Canadian lake monster

 
A few days ago, the media [1] reported that a strange and ugly lake monster washed ashore. The photographs (see [1] below)taken at the site show a mammal that may be a bear cub (puffy due to its submersion in the lake) or a beaver, otter, etc.

It is definitively not a "monster", just a normal mammal's carcass.

Which goes to show that not all strange sightings are actually lake creatures. And this is valid not only for Canada, but for all places, including Patagonia and its Nahuelito cryptids.

Bibliography.

[1] Mystery surrounds creature found in Ont. creek. CTV, Ontario. 21.05.2010.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Lake monsters are Dakosaurs not Plesiosaurs

 
A likely candidate for Patagonian lake creatures. All of the cryptozoolgy articles that I have read about gigantic cryptid lake Creatures always suggest that they are Plesiosaurs. I have come across another more likely candidate (though, we would still have to explain how it managed to survive the massive dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago).

The creature by the way lived in Patagonia in the late Jurassic Period some 135 million years ago, it was a strange and entirely new species of crocodile, the Dakosaurus andiniensis . The name Dakosaurus means ‘tearing lizard’. It is the first discovery of a croc looking dinosaur.

Dino-Croc Dakosaurus Andiniensis Click on image to enlarge. Copyright © 2005 Clarin

It had a bullet-shaped skull with a high and flat head (with T-Rex like snout) . Its teeth were large and had a serrated-edge, all of which is very different from the other crocs (which have long narrow muzzles and thin teeth).

Unlike the crocodiles we know today, the Dakosaurus lived entirely in the water, and was well adapted to its habitat: it had fins instead of legs and a fish-like tail. Its size and shape earned it the nickname “Godzilla.”

Its remains were discovered in 1996 at Pampa Tril in Nequén province by Argentine scientists Sergio and Rafael Cocca.

“Godzilla” measured roughly 4 meters long (13 ft.) and its interlocking 10 cm long (4 in.) teeth show that it was a predator that fed on other big sea reptiles.

It was, according to Diego Pol (one of the team who worked on the remains) “an abundant and evolutionary successful group that occupied many ecological niches currently occupied by other species such as mammals…” this would indicate a relatively adaptable and smart creature that could have survived beyond the Dinosaur Age.

In the late Jurassic, the Andes had not yet risen out of the ocean, and Nequén was a tropical region. Pampa Tril was a warm deep bay along on the coast of the ancient Pacific Ocean. [1][2]

So we have the right creature in the right place, all we need to do is get the right time frame.

Bibliography.

[1] Iglesias, M. Descubren en Neuquén un fósil de cocodrilo con aspecto de dinosaurio. 11.11.2005. Clarin. Buenos Aires.

[2] Gasparini Z., et al. An Unusual Marine Crocodyliform from the Jurassic-Cretaceous Boundary of Patagonia. Science 6 January 2006: 70-73. DOI: 10.1126/science.1120803

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Vanishing rivers and Plesiosaurs

 
I previous posts (List of my plesiosaur entries) I have discussed Nahuelito the "reptilian" cryptid that is said to live in Lake Nahuel Huapi. I have dismissed the possibility that the creature (if it exists) is an extant Mesozoic reptile, but I never gave a detailed explanation or proof to support my position. Until now.

Today we will look into the origin and evolution of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the mystery of a "lost" river in Patagonia. Both of which may shed some light on the plesiosaur business.

First there was fire

The mighty Andes are a mountain range that span the entire west coast of South America. They are being pushed upwards by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the westward moving South American Plate. This is the longest subduction zone in the whole world and is over 7,000 km (4,350 mi.) long. This mighty collision shortens and crumples the South American Plate and forces the Andes constantly upwards.

The subduction process began during the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras (at about the same time or shortly after the dinosaurs disappeared) and has continued since then. In the Patagonian Andes, which extend from roughly 39°S to 52°S, the uplift began during the Miocene period (23 to 5 Million years ago).

It was in this period that the area where modern Lake Nahuel Huapi lies was folded and driven upwards. Mighty mountain ranges were formed. These run with a North to South orientation and this conditioned regional drainage. Massive volcanos were also formed, and are still the highest mountains in the area (i.e Mount Tronador and Mount Lanin, both over 3,500 m – 11,500 ft.). These new mountains were much higher than they are nowadays, erosion had not yet worn them down. They had steep slopes and sharp "V" shaped valleys separated them.

Then there was ice

Regular snow melt in summer and rain began the erosive process that created the first streams and rivers, which ran eastwards towards the Atlantic on the oriental side of the Andes, and west into the Pacific ocean on the occidental side. The continental water divide rested on the highest summits.

A proto-drainage system was formed. After several millions of years, a gradual cooling began, and the mountain tops began gathering more and more snow, which turned to ice and formed glaciers which then flowed downhill from these steep mountains into the valleys that separated them.

The glaciers, like gigantic bulldozers crunched the rock with their tremendous weight and abraded the valley floor and mountain slopes, making them wider and deeper and giving them the characteristic “U” shape of glacial valleys.

Ice age chronology at Nahuel Huapi

The first recorded Ice Age is the Pichileufu Glaciation named after the Pichileufu River which runs some 20 km south east of Bariloche city in a northern direction towards Limay River.

Remains of glacial drift (drift is any kind of rock transported by a glacier) have been found 350 to 500 meters above modern Lake Nahuel Huapi (up to 1,200 m above sea level – 3,900 ft.).

These glaciers were probably ice “lobes” that extended beyond the mountain range into the steppe, they were not very thick.[3]

This glaciation was followed by a long interglacial period during which the recently hewn glacial valleys were eroded by rainfall and rivers resulting in deeper and wider trenches. These would later serve as conduits for the glaciers during the following Ice Ages.[3]

The Andes in the meantime kept on pushing higher (1 – 0.8 million years ago) causing more ice to accumulate and defining the gradient along which ice would flow.

At about that time, the second glacial period (El Cóndor began. It reached eastwards towards the Atlantic Ocean, along the steppe and west right up to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Warming caused the glaciers to melt and retreat once more.

The final ice age or Nahuel Huapi glaciation began some 75,000 years ago; the ice sheets reached their maximum coverage some 20,000 years ago, when once again warming caused the ice to melt. Sporadic “Tardiglacial” advances some 10,000 years ago (during the period known as Younger Dryas in the Northern Hemisphere) puncutated the ice’s retreat.

Since then, the global warming trend has melted the valley glaciers in this area and permanent ice coverage can only be found on Mount Tronador (with several glaciers) and on the summits of other high mountains.[3]

Map showing extent of glacier coverage at Lake Nahuel Huapi. Copyright © 2007 by Austin Whittall. Adapted From [1].

Then there was water

It is not easy to imagine extensive sheets of ice at least 2 km (1.25 mi.) thick moving slowly downhill towards what is now the edge of the Patagonian steppe, some 100 km (60 mi.) from the Continental Divide. These were massive glaciers whose flow was guided by the valleys formed during previous glaciations and the blocking effect of transversal (north-south) mountain ranges.

The west – east slope down which the glaciers moved was blocked by these north-south ranges. In some places such as the current basin of Lake Nahuel Huapi (like most Patagonian lakes it has an east-west orientation) the ice managed to leave the Andes behind and push outwards along the steppe.

Glacial Ice melt helped to form the paleo-valleys of most modern rivers draining towards the Atlantic, such as the Colorado, Negro, Neuquén and Limay rivers. These flowed along pre-existing faults (such as the Negro river along the Huincul fault) or along the proto-rivers that drained the area before the Ice Ages.

Towards the end of the last Ice Age some 16,000 to 18,000 years ago, ice melt generated huge quantities of water that were dammed in by the former glacier’s terminal moraine.

Moraines are crescent shaped mounds or accumulations of rocks that can be found at glacier’s tips and sides (frontal and lateral moraines), they are the rocks “bulldozed” by the advancing ice and act as dams to the melting glacial ice.

Water accumulated in the great depression that the glaciers had excavated, flooding the whole basin and forming a lake, which is known as Elpalafquen (derived from the language of the local Mapuche natives: Elpa = the beginning and Lafquen = lake), the “lake of the beginning”.

Elpalafquen's water level was much higher than that of modern day Lake Nahuel Huapi and therefore this paleo-lake and covered a larger area than the current Lake Nahuel Huapi (which has a surface area of 550 km² or 212 sq.mi.).

It extended across current low-lying areas and meadows beyond what are now its shores, encompasing other lower lying lakes that now flow into Nahuel Huapi such as Lake Correntoso, Lake Espejo, Lake Moreno, Lakes Gutierrez and Mascardi among others.

Its eastern terminus was blocked by the natural dam of its terminal moraine. The excess water (melting snow on the surrounding mountains and rain) flowed over this moraine into what now is the Limay River and from there into the Negro River and on towards the Atlantic Ocean.

To the west, straddling the main Andean range, the melting ice cap still blocked the valleys that led to the Pacific Ocean. Later, a western outflow appeared along a paleo-River, the Lower Manso, which now drains part of this basin into the Pacific (the low lying Manso Pass, at 400 m above sea level [1,300 ft.] - 41º30’S, 71º50’W).

Breach and flood

About 13,200 years ago, melting was accelerated during the Late Pleistocene period and probably a sudden volcanic or tectonic event created a cataclysmic breach of the eastern moraine. The dam broke and vast quantities of water poured downstream along the Limay paleo-River valley. [4]

The western end also lost its ice “plug” at the same time and contributed to drastically drop Elpalafquen's level.

The outflow had several consequences:

1. The paleo-lake split up into several smaller ones (that we can still see nowadays).
2. Nahuel Huapi, the largest among them continued flowing into the Atlantic. Lakes Gutierrez, Moreno and Correntoso -among others- flowed downstream into the Nahuel Huapi.
3. Other lakes (Mascardi, Guillermo, Steffen, Hess, Fonck, etc. changed their drainage westwards into the Pacific Ocean. The continental divide had moved east far from the highest mountains, an anomaly that would later create tension between Argentina and Chile when they defined their mutual border in the late 1800s.
4. Devastation along the Limay and Negro river valleys which may have contributed to give them their current shape.

Shorter route for the "Plesiosaur"

Before this cataclysmic event it is very likely that Elpalafquen spilled east into the steppe, and that occasional large floods of glacial melt origin swept through that region. Perhaps it had a small outlet flowing due east with a constant flow.

There is an elevated region, with several ridges running north to south to the east of Lake Nahuel Huapi, these are the sources of several rivers, some that drain north into the Limay basin (Comallo and Pichi Leufu rivers), others south towards the Chubut basin and others west into Nahuel Huapi.

They are not to high (roughly 1,000 m – 3,300 ft.) so a flooded Elpalafquen could well have overflowed and washed across them draining into the lower lands that lie to the east and that currently drains into a closed basin (see my posts on this area's Lake Carrilafquen, home to a "cuero" monster).

This idea was put forward by Casamiquela [2], who wrote about the geology of the Huahuel Niyeo River valley, which, according to him [2] is “one of the stretches of the 'ancient Limay River Valley'”. He adds that this Limay paleo-river, instead of following its current SW-NE course, may drained eastwards and carried Andean rocks and gravel (“rodados tehuelches”) into the area, during a “great deglaciation”.

The gravel trail

These Patagonian gravels (known in Spanish as “rodados patagónicos” or “rodados tehuelches” cover most of the surface of Patagonia, it is a layer of gravel which can reach a thickness of tens of meters (hundreds of feet) composed of boulders and pebbles of a wide range of sizes.

which was first mentioned by Charles Darwin who was intrigued by them as he had seen them in northern Patagonia (by the Negro and Colorado rivers) and again in the south at Deseado and Santa Cruz rivers. He wrote:

By whatever means the gravel formation of Patagonia may have been distributed, the vastness of its area, its thickness, its superficial position, its recent origin, and the great degree of similarity in the nature of its pebbles all appear to me well deserving the attention of geologists, in relation to the origin of the wide-spread beds of conglomerate belonging to past epochs [5]

Darwin believed that in ancient times erosion (ice, water) had deposited vast amounts of pebbles at the foot of the Andes which were then spread out across Patagonia by the sea (wave action), which he believed covered most of Patagonia. As the continent rose, the gravel came above sea level.

Darwin's theory is not favored nowadays, but even today the origin of this gravel is debated. The general consensus is that they originated during the Pleistocene epoch, during the glaciations, which eroded and worked the rocks and boulders into these egg shaped stones. Water from ice melt (rivers, streams and floods) later dragged them across Patagonia.

As the following map shows, these gravels are found virtually everywhere and mostly following the courses of current rivers (the middle course of Chubut River as well as Limay and Neuquén rivers are exceptions. Why?). They are also found along the sea shore (perhaps due to oceanic dispersion of gravel washed into the ocean by the rivers).

Distribution of Patagonian Gravel and the hypothetical Elpalafquen river. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall. Adapted from [7].

Did Eplalafquen drain eastwards along the northern foot of Somuncurá plateau in a broad arch through what are now closed basins fed streams that flowed north from the plateau? Could it have reached what is now the bay of San Antonio in the Gulf of San Matías?

The distribution of Patagonian gravel in the map shows that it may be possible (note the curved red line of the hypothetical river that drained Elpalafquen – shown as a red circle), furthermore it explains the gravel spread to the southeast of Elpalafquen.

There are some areas along the river's course that lack gravel (i.e. San Antonio on the Atlantic.) but here, marine transgression has placed sediment above the gravel.

The course of this river would roughly coincide with National Highway No. 23 and the Railroad that connects Bariloche with San Antonio Oeste. This is quite obvious as both road and tracks run along the lower lying areas north of Somuncurá plateau, which is where the river would have been in post-glacial times.

Somuncurá is home to a strange relict fish, the naked minnow.

If so, this hypothetical river would have followed the course shown in red in the following map. I have also shown (red circle) the approximate area that the paleo-lake would have occupied and its southwestern drainage through the Manso River into Chile.

Elpalafquen's river draining towards the Atlantic. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall

This river would have been very short lived (decades? centuries?) and when the Limay plug broke, the lower water level at Nahuel Huapi maked its end. Perhaps intermitent flow from Carilafquen paleo-lake could have kept it flowing for longer, but the link with the Andean lakes would have been severed.

Proof. The native myths.

The native myth mentioned by Clemente Onelli in his 1903 book (he got it from first hand sources before the local natives traditions became lost forever). I will quote him fully:

I descended into a fertile and wide canyon that extends till it is out of sight towards the east and whose other tip, on the lake is now blocked by glacier hills; the native tradition says that, in very old times, along this gully a river flowed, it exited the lake [Nahuel Huapi] and reached the sea in front of the gulf of San Antonio [Gulf of San Matías]. [6]

Ancient maps offer additional proof, I will post on them in my next entry. By the way, there are several "missing" or "lost" rivers in Patagonia, I will post on them too.

The sea monster

Having said all this, it could be reaonably possible this direct route along a hypothetical Elpalafquen drainage river would join the Ocean to the Andes. It would also be a far shorter than that of the Negro and Limay rivers. This is, I believe an interesting option and has some reasonable proof in its favor.

Now the "low probability" events:

If so, this Elpalafquen river could also have allowed some mysterious sea creature to swim upstream to the newborn glacial paleo-lake and make it its abode.

This would require an extant plesiosaur that somehow managed to survive extinction, reproduce and live in the oceans some 65 million years and then, during the small temporal window of this river's existence, find it and swim upstream to paleo-Lake Nahuel Huapi an adapt to a freshwater environment. Perhaps an impregnated female would suffice or to keep the species alive, a male and female couple would be required.

Yes, the chances of this happening are virtually nil.

Bibliography.

[1] Kodama, K., Rabassas, J., Evenson, E., Clinch, M.(1986). Paleomagnetismo y edad relativa del drift Pichileufu en su area tipo, San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro. Asociación Geológica Argentina, Revista. XLI (1-2): 165-178. Fig. 1. pp. 167.
[2] Casamiquela, R., (1969). Historia Geologica del Valle de Huahuel Niyeo Area Extraandina del Suroeste de la Provincia de Rio Negro, República Argentina (Con énfasis en el Pleistoceno). Asociación Geológica Argentina, Revista. Jul-Sep. pp. 287+
[3] Planas, F. (2009)Las glaciaciones en el norte de la Patagonia Desde la Patagonia difundiendo saberes. V. 6 - Nº 9. Online.
[4] Del Valle, R., Tatur, A., Rinaldi, C. (2007) Cambios en lagos y circulación fluvial vinculados al calentamiento climático del pleistoceno tardío-holoceno temprano en Patagonia e isla 25 de Mayo, islas Shetland del sur, Antártida. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 62 (4): 618- 626.
[5] Darwin, C., (1851). Geological observations on coral reefs, volcanic islands and on South America: being the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, during the years 1833 to 1836. Smith, Elder & Co., pp. 25.
[6] Onelli, C., (2007). Trepando los Andes (1903. Buenos Aires: Ed. Continente. pp. 33
[7] Martinez, O., Rabassa, J., Coronato A., (2009). Charles Darwin and the first scientific observations on the patagonian shingle formation (Rodados Patagónicos). Rev. Asoc. Geol. Argent. v.64 n.1 Buenos Aires abr. 2009

Further reading

Caldenius, C. 1932. Las glaciaciones cuaternarias en la Patagonia y T. del Fuego. Dir. Gral. Minas y Geología, Publ. 95, 150 pp., Buenos Aires
Feruglio, E. 1949-1950. Descripcion geologica de la Patagonia. T.3, YPF, Buenos Aires
Fidalgo, F., 1982. Glaciaciones en la Patagonia. INQUA Comm. Litol. & Genesis Quat. Depos., South Amer. Reg. Meet. Excursión Fieldbook, p. 9-29, J. Rabassa, de., Departamento de Geografia, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuqu´n.
Rabassa, J. 1974. Geologia de la región de Pilcaniyeu-Comallo, Pcia. de Río Negro, Argentina. Tesis doctoral N. 331, Facultad de Cienc. Nat. y Museo, Univ. Nac de La Plata y Publ. N. 17, Depto. Rec. Nat. Energia, Fundacion Bariloche: 128, San Carlos de Bariloche.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall ©