Human Genetic Diversity: Some Maps

The global human diversity map that I included in my previous post came without any reference to source or scientific backing, so it isn't reliable. I decided to search for something better and came across the three maps shown below.

They come from Figure 2, in the 2009 paper by Romero, I., Manica, A., Goudet, J. et al. How accurate is the current picture of human genetic variation?. Heredity 102, 120–126 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2008.89

Interpolation of estimates of genetic diversity (HS) for short tandem repeats (STRs) (a), indels (b) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (c). The intensity of the red colour represents the genetic diversity obtained with an inverse distance-weighted (IDW) interpolation on landmasses. Blue dots represent the 54 populations from the H971 subset of the HGDP-CEPH data set. (d) The difference in genetic diversity between African and European populations for the three classes of markers. Error bars report standard deviation.. Fig. 2 in Romero, Manica, Goudet et al.

The map does not include data for Australia, South America appears with the lowest diversity for all three indicators, SNPs, indels, and SNPs, however, Africa has a low scoer in indels as you can see in (b).

I also found the source of the original map, it was published by Luca Pagani, as his thesis (online here, Through the layers of the Ethiopian genome: a survey of human genetic variation based on genome-wide genotyping and re-sequencing data. July 2013, DOI:10.17863/CAM.13969, Thesis for: PhDAdvisor: Toomas Kivisild). The map (shown again, below) is captioned "Pattern of genetic diversity in worldwide human populations. The distribution of STR diversity in worldwide human populations, adapted from the literature (Colonna et al. 2011), shows a higher diversity in African populations and a decline with the distance from Africa (each black dot represents a sampled population). The observed pattern fits with the proposed single African origin with subsequent migrations out of Africa proposed by Stringer and Andrews in 1988."

Colonna et al, (2011), cited by Pagani has several maps in his paper as Fig. 1 (Colonna, V., Pagani, L., Xue, Y. et al. A world in a grain of sand: human history from genetic data. Genome Biol 12, 234 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2011-12-11-234), where Pagani was a co-author.

I wonder what the plesiosaur in the Pacific stands for (?) it appears in the four maps of the 2011 paper.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

The Chinese knew about America before 1492

Continuing with the subject of my previous post, on the possible sailing of Chinese voyagers from Asia to America, I found an article that suggests that Chinese knew about America before 1430 AD, that is, several decades before Christopher Columbus set out from Spain on his voyage of "discovery".

The article is: Chinese Mapped America Before 1430 , by Lee, Siu-Leung. Proceedings of the ICA, Volume 1, 2018, id.67 Pub Date: May 2018 DOI: 10.5194/ica-proc-1-67-2018. 🔓

This is an online version of the original map, below is a colorized thumbnail of the same map.

1602 Chinese World Map. Source

The Map

The article looks into a map called the "Chinese World Map" (Kunyu Wanguo Quantu), which was presented to the Chinese Emperor Wanli in 1602 by an Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci. The map's text is entirely written in Chinese.

In this article, the author analyzes and compares this map with others made by Europeans (contemporaneous world maps by Mercator (1569), Ortelius (1570) , Mercator's Arctic map (1595), and Plancius (1594)) and concludes that the Chinese map isn't a copy of these European ones. It is an original Chinese creation.

Based on the map's precision and location of the continents, the place names, and geographic information it contains, Lee concludes that:

"Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, the 1602 Chinese world map, is labeled entirely in Chinese. It is either translated from European maps or based on original Chinese surveys and records. [It] is much more accurate and detailed than maps by Ortelius, Mercator and Plancius. Ricci could not have updated American geography known only 200 years before their “discovery”. Ricci can be further excluded as an author because the pre-Renaissance geography and absence of Papal States in Europe are incompatible with Ricci’s status as a Jesuit of Renaissance Italy. Since Ricci’s collabora- tor Li Zhizao did not update the geography of China, the survey must be completed by Chinese well before Ricci and Li’s time. The geography of China on Kunyu Wanguo Quantu is pre-1430. The original Kunyu Wanguo Quantu should be a summary of surveys during Admiral Zheng He’s first six voyages (1405-1424) to prepare for the last voyage. After Zheng He’s death in 1433, China did not have the incentive and support for world exploration or construction of world maps..."

Lee suggests that the original map was completed around 1430, over 60 years before Columbus set out from Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic.

The 1430 date comes from different pieces of evidence: (1) the Chinese text written on Spain says that "this map is drawn “some 70 years after the first communication with Europe", and the first European diplomatic mission to the Chinese empire took place in 1342-1347 (the Papal legation under the leadership of Giovanni de' Marignolli). (2) The Chinese part of the map is relevant for the Emperor Yongle (1403-1424) as it shows places he conducted military campaigns in, and furthermore, definitely dating of the map. (3) Admiral Zheng's voyages timeline with its discoveries and surveys coincide with this date.

Menzies Book on Zheng's fleets

Back in 2009 I posted my criticism on the theory put forward by Gavin Menzies, in his book 1421 The year China discovered the World. He suggested that Admiral Zheng's fleets (of a vast size) that sailed on seven oceanic voyages between 1405 and 1433 had charted the world, and also added some wild ideas involving taking Patagonian mylodons to New Zealand, among others.

Lee's article seems to give some creedence to the surveying part of Menzies' book, at least regarding the New World and its appearance in map-making.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Location of the "Phoenician" stones in Patagonia

 
Map showing where the Patagonian "Phoenician" inscriptions were found.
 
See Index on all my posts on Phoenicians in America.
 

Map showing the main sites and locations of the Phoenician inscribed stones of Patagonia. Copyright © 2011 by Austin Whittall

Let's take a look at the places where the "Phoenician" inscriptions were found. As I mentioned in my previous post, they are very different to the authentic native (Tehuelche) rock inscriptions, though they appear in the region which was the former homeland of these natives.

The places

Garcés [3] says that he bought (paid for, purchased - this is interesting as we will see in the next post) an inscribed stone from a Mr. Miguel Terraza, who told him that these stones come from the central part of the province.

Terraza indicated that they came from the area between Cerro Negro, Sierra Nevada, Sierra Rosada and the Chico River. A barren area. Just to the south of this region are lakes Colhue Huapi and Musters, fed by the Senguer River, which provides water to irrigate an agricultural colony settled by Boers who fled from the war that was raging between them and the British in South Africa in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. They settled around the current town of Sarmiento in southern Chubut.

According to Garcés, the custodian at the Rawson Museum (in 1943), [3] told him that there were over one hundred of those stones and that the Boers collected most of those stones and took them back to South Africa with them. He also noted that many foreigners also took them abroad.

To the east is Comodoro Rivadavia, an oil city, on the coast, which housed the "Lady of Elche" of the Patagonia, now lost.

Just north, along the coast is Punta Visser, where one of the Phoenician stones was found.

Still further north, is the original Welsh colony, at Madryn, Trelew, Rawson and Dolavon. The Museo Salesiano at Rawson, holds many of these "Phoenician" inscribed stones in its collection.

To the northwest of Rawson is Sierra Colorada. This is where I have managed to locate the site of another stone, which was said to come from "Chullucurá".

The name does not exist, there is no "Chullu" anywhere in Chubut. And regarding the second part of the place name, "Curá", fortunately there is only one place with the word "Curá" in it, and it is known as "Quelle Curá". [2]

This sounds very lie "Chullu", so it may be a typo or a spelling mistake. The place name means, in Mapuche language: "Quillá" or "Clá" = three, and "Curá" = Stones; therefore it is "three stones". [1] It is described as being located about 50 km to the northeast of the small village of Telsen, in northern Chubut. Exactly where I marked it on the map.

Garcés also mentions some stones that were collected by the wife of Dr. Elizagaray, the District Attorney at Trelew, one of which came from a place close to Puerto Lobos dug up when they laid the natural gas pipe from Patagonia to Buenos Aires. This place (which I did not mark on the map above) is located where the northern border of Chubut (white dashed line) meets the ocean, to the east of Sierra Colorada.

Then we have the inscription with the Yaz symbol (ⵣ) at Lake Puelo, in the western part of the province, in the Andean foothills, just to the north of the second Welsh colony (they moved west as their population grew in the late 1800s), at Esquel and Trevelin.

Remarks

The stones seem to come from two distinct areas. One along the northern part of the province, just north of the Chubut River, at is western sources (close to Lake Puelo) and on the coastal area north of its mouth on the Atlantic. The other is the central part of the province, a barren desolate place. What would people be doing there sculpting stones? Is there mineral wealth there?

I do recall however reading a remark by a Welsh explorer, Llywd ap Ewan who returning from an expedition to the Andes of Chubut and Santa Cruz, cut across from the fork where the Mayo and Senguer rivers meet and followed a route that lies roughly along the blue line (see map) that joins the Sierra Nevada and Sierra Rosada, and he wrote in his diary that he saw a strange stone columns or monoliths. I, just like the editor believed that it was some natural artifact, a rock carved by erosion (sandblasted by the relentless Patagonian winds) but, now, I am looking at it with another point of view. It may have been man made.

I will check the book and quote him here later.[4]

The City of Caesars and the Phoenicians

The “City of Caesars” was an “El Dorado” which is a tale that deserves a book of its own, yet it can be summarized as follows: The legend of the City of Caesars began in the mid XVI^th century. It revolved around an incredibly rich city set in the hidden mountains of western Patagonia (i.e. its roads were paved with gold) and was inhabited by people of European origin who led secluded lives there. Several expeditions were sent to find it, and it was not until the late XVIII^th century that it lost credibility and searches were discontinued.

So you can imagine my surprise when I came across a map drawn by French scientist Martini de Moussy [5] showing it!

He had been commissioned by the Argentine government to study the geography of the country. After traveling throughout the country he produced his Description Geographique et Statistique de la Confederation Argentine (1860-1864) and an Atlas (1869). This Atlas contains several maps, and I reproduce part of one below:

Map showing the City of Caesars in 1869, Patagonia. Adapted from [5] by Austin Whittall

To the left (West) and quite far from its usual location in the Andes, is the City of "Los Cesares" (of Caesars), on one of the rivers that flows from the Andean foothills to form the Chubut River (in those days also known as Chupat). The Welsh colony figures in the map as a project. Note that above the colony are the "Calli he ches" Indians (exactly where the "Quelle" or "Chullu" site is). In Spanish, "Calli" "Quelle" and "Chullu" sound very similar.

What is the City of Caesars doing so far away from the Andes and the forests? Why is it set there in the middle of the steppe? Perhaps there was some mineral resource there?

Yes, actually, close to the sources of the Chubut River, at the town of Esquel there is gold, and the locals have been battling large mining concerns for years, to keep them from ruining the scenery and polluting the area if they ever get the necessary permits to mine the stuff.[6]

Could the City of Caesars by a Phoenician mining village? Were these wealthy people of "European" origin actually surviving "Phoenicians" or "Carthaginians"?
Intriguing, and something that I haven't seen written elsewhere. So it is an original idea! and backed by some (though I must admit tenuous) evidence.

We still have to look into the authenticity of these stones and consider the possibility that they are fake.

Sources.

[1] Lázaro Fleury, (1944). Guiliches, Tradiciones, leyendas, apuntes gramaticales y vocabulario de la zona pampa-araucana. Universidad de Córdoba. pp. 61.
[2] Rodolfo M. Casamiquela, (2000). Toponimia indígena del Chubut. Author's edition. pp. 213.
[3] Antonio Garcés,(1951). Libro del Cincuentenario de Comodoro Rivadavia, 1901-1951. Aspectos de la Arqueología Patagónica. Chap. 29.
[4] Roberts, T. and Gavirati, M., (2008) Diarios del Explorador Llywd ap Iwan. Villa Adelina: Patagonia Sur Libros; Gral. Roca: La Bitácora Patagónica.
[5] Martin de Moussy, (1865). Carte de la Patagonie et des archipels de la Terre de Feu, des Malouines et des cotes occidentales jusqu'au Golfe de Reloncavi.
[6] Gold at Esquel

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Ancient Greeks in the River Plate!

 

Map showing the location of Dolores, Uruguay, site of the "Greek" remains.
Copyright © 20011 by Austin Whittall

This post is about a farmer who, in the early 1800s, lived close to the Uruguayan town of Dolores. He made an amazing finding: an inscribed stone and some ancient body armor, which was supposedly identified as belonging to a Greek explorer from the days of Alexander the Great. This story, sounds like a hoax, but since I have been posting on Phoenicians in America, I thought, ok why not! So here it is:

The original text is worth quoting from its source (a local magazine published in Soriano, the Uruguayan District where Dolores is located), a 1963 article:

A farmer [...] had discovered an ancient stone, sunk in the ground, on which some unknown letters were written. Picking up the stone, he came across a small stone chamber , inside of which were two very ancient swords, a helmet and a shield, very rusty, and a regular sized amphora. He took those pieces to Montevideo, and the priest Martínez managed to decipher the coarse and worn greek characters, whose translation was: "During the reign of Alexander king of Macedonia, son of Phillip, on the 63 olympics, here Ptolemy...", the rest of the phrase could not be read. On the hilt of one of the swords, whose blades were completely destroyed, a relief with the head of Alexander could be made out. The helmet still displayed a delicate work of metal craftmanship, representing in relief Aquiles dragging Hector's body around Troy. [1]

The sources

Text about Ptolemy, the "Greek" from 320 BC whose remains were found in Uruguay. From [1].

The above text was originally published in 1835 in the Montevideo newspaper "El Universal", who in turn took it from the December 9, 1934 issue of the "Jornal do Comercio" of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian journal informed that it had got the news from the "Gaceta de Francia" of Paris, which had taken it from the "Le Temps" of April 11, 1832, and this paper from the "Messager des Chambres " of March 22, 1832.

The article seems to have been published before that date in the "Giornale del Regno delle Due Sicilie" on June 11, 1829 and before that, in the "Gaceta Universal" of Bogotá Colombia.

Criticism and comments

The first flaw found in the story was the date. The 63^rd Olympic games took place around 528 - 524 BC, long before Alexander's regin (Alexander died in 323 BC).

However, if instead of 63, you read 113, the Olympic games date would fit neatly within Alexander's reign over Macedonia and most of the "known" world.

The thing is that at the time (1829) Uruguay was just coming out of a war against Brazil, in which it won its independence (with the help of Argentina), and political turmoil would have covered up the news, which was disclosed through a distant paper in Colombia instead of locally, in Montevideo.

What would a Greek ship be doing at Dolores? In those days, the delta of the Paraná River was several tens of kilometers up stream from its current position just 20 km (12.5 mi.) north of Buenos Aires.

The delta advances at about 25 to 100 m/year (82 to 328 ft/year),[2] so over the last 2,320 years it would have been located between 58 and 232 km further north (36 to 144 mi.), upstream. See the map below.

The Uruguay River lacks a delta and drains into the eastern side of the River Plate as a wide river.

Dolores, the site of the finding, is located on the San Salvador River which drains into the Uruguay River. Perhaps it offered a good port for the Greek sailors. Actually, Sebastian Cabot, the first to explore the region after Magellan and Solis, actually built a fort on the mouth of the San Salvador. He must have chosen it for some strategic reason. This fort is the first Spanish settlement in Uruguay (1527). He would later sail up the Paraná and establish Sancti Spiritus at Carcaraña, Argentina.

Could the Greek soldier be a dead member of Cabot's expedition?

Map showing coastline in 320 BC with the possible maximum and minimum area covered by water. This area in now occupied by the Delta of the Paraná River.
Copyright © 20011 by Austin Whittall

The map above shows the maximum and minimum extent of the River Plate in the days of Alexander the Great. The delta did not extend beyond Rosario or Zarate based on the max. and min. advance of the delta (58 and 232 km) mentioned above.

Sources.

[1] Un Enigma histórico. Ptolomeo fue enterrado en Dolores. Revista Histórica de soriano. May 31, 1963. No. 8. pp. 8.
[2] Marcos Pittau, Alejo Sarubbi, Angel N. Menéndez Analisis del avance del frente del delta del rio Parana

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Homo erectus the sailor seaman

 

Map showing Sahul, Sunda, Wallacea and Flores. Copyright © 2011 by Austin Whittall

Homo erectus the sailor: in previous posts I mentioned that H. erectus could have used watercraft to reach America, but I did not reference the statement. Today we will see what evidence supports the idea of a navigating erectus.

Flores island or crossing Wallace’s line

H. erectus after leaving Africa trekked along South Asia’s coast and reached what is now Indonesia. There he came to a dead end at Bali. The sea blocked any further advances towards the south.

However, a Dutch missionary named Theodor Verhoeven [1], an amateur archeologist who lived on Flores Island, discovered on that island, some man-made stone tools together with the remains of an extinct elephant (the Stegodon) which dated back to over 750,000 years ago. He concluded that the tools were as old as the bones and that the only humans of that period (H. erectus) had made the tools and, much more important, reached Flores Island.

Flores was not linked to the rest of South East Asia at that time, it was isolated by a strait of treacherous deep sea from the other land masses.

This was a formidable barrier, and actually divides the fauna of Asia (monkeys, rhinos, elephants) from that of Australia and New Guinea, confining marsupials to the latter. It is known as Wallace’s line (after biologist Russel Wallace who, independently from Charles Darwin, and at the same time, formulated a theory of evolution based on natural selection).

Animals could only island hop up to Wallace’s line. One one side was "Sundaland", which comprised the mainland and the large Indonesian Islands, which when the sea level was lower, formed a large land mass (Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Bali and Borneo).

On the other side, was "Sahul" which comprised Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. In between was “Wallacea”, formed by the islands of Flores, Timor, Celebes (Sulawesi), Lombok and other lesser ones.

Homo erectus the sailor

So, to get to Flores Island, our distant ancestor had to master the art and craft of watercraft building, as well as that of navigating. Quite a feat, which until recently science did not consider possible (the oldest human navigators were believed to be the Homo sapiens who entered Australia some 50 to 60,000 years ago.

For this reason Verhoeven’s claim was ignored (and also because he was an amateur who published in German in an Anglo speaking scientific world).

In 1994 another Dutch group, headed by Paul Sondaar, [2] dated the soil using a paleomagnetic method at a site called Mata Menge to an age of 750,000 years.
Later dating by fission-track method confirm the date, and place it 800,000 years ago. This means that these primitive humans were not so primitive and had quite developed cognitive abilities, such as a language to ensure cooperation between sailors and ship-builders.[3]

However there are skeptics: as only tools, not erectus bones have been found some some believe that these may be natural and not man-made artifacts.

There is more evidence to support the idea of erectus in Flores: the islands’ odd mix of giant komodo dragons and tortoises plus pygmy stegodon elephants all became extinct quite suddenly some 900,000 years ago. Did humans cause these extinctions?

The distance from Sumbawa Island to Flores is some 19 km (12 mi), and before that the straits between Sumbawa and Bali (25 km or 16 mi ) had to be crossed also. This could not be done by swimming. Furthermore, a stable population would have been required to produce the tools found at Flores and span such a long period of time.

The American link

Of course, the tall volcanoes of Indonesia’s islands would have let men see where they were going even if they did not see the coast of the islands. They knew where they were going.

If erectus had gone on towards Australia as some believe, he would have ventured into the unknown, and had to cross a longer stretch of open sea. To reach America along the northern coastal waters of Asia along Beringia and then down the Western coast of America would have been quite a feat, and would have needed sturdy, well built craft.

Perhaps H. erectus reached Melanesia, and when modern humans reached this region, mixed with them, sharing part of their genome with us: The DNA from H. erectus remains from Denisova, Siberia, shows current Melanesians share about 5 percent of their DNA with these Denisovans, a sign of ancient interbreeding.

At Flores, nearly one million years ago, they perhaps floated across on bundles of bamboo. They may have even undertaken the first voyage accidentally, pushed by the wind while fishing close to the shore. Perhaps they later learned to assemble their rafts to deliberately cross the sea in a safer way.

Until modern humans appeared in Africa some 170,000 years ago, and then moved out of Africa and displaced / replaced erectus there was a long span of time during which the more archaic humans could have moved on, from Asia and into America. Where they settled until modern humans moved in too less than 50,000 years ago.

Update. Jan. 21, 2011: Crude stone tools found in Crete, Greece dated to some 130 - 700,000 years ago indicate that H. erectus crossed at least 65 km (40 mi) of open sea to reach Crete from the mainland. (see my post on this find Homo erectus navigator reaches Crete).

Sources.

[1] Verhoeven, Theodor, (1968). Vorgeschichtliche Forschungen auf Flores, Timor und Sumba. Athropica: Gedenkschrift zum 100. Geburtstag von P. W. Schmidt, Studia Instituti Anthropos No. 21, St. Augustin, pp. 393-403.
[2] Sondaar, P. Y., van den Bergh, G. D., Mub-roto, B., Aziz, F., de Vos, J., and Batu, U. L., (1994). Middle Pleistocene faunal turnover and colonization of Flo-res (Indonesia) by Homo erectus. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences Paris 319: 1255-1262.
[3] Morwood, M,J., O'Sullivan, P.B., Aziz, F., & Raza, A. (1998). Fission-track ages of stone tools and fossils on the east Indonesian island of Flores. Nature, 392(6672):173-176.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Alakaluf Rock Art and Mylodon depiction

 

Location of Madre de Dios Island, and the Mylodon Cave close to Puerto Natales, Chile. Adapted by Austin Whittall from [2]

Looking for rock art depicting Homo erectus or similar archaic hominids, I found an interesting anthropomorphic drawing done by some Alakaluf natives which may depict a mylodon.

Mylodons in Patagonia

I have already posted on the Mylodon Cave where in the 1890s some apparently fresh remains of mylodon fur and dung were found. This led scientists to believe that the animal which should have become extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, was still alive somewhere out there in the Patagonian wilderness. It was only much later that the bones were dated and their old age proven (they dated to the Ice Age megafaunal extinction period).

However, at Madre de Dios Island, in the South Pacific Ocean, some ancient rock art, drawn by the Alakaluf canoe people, a strange figure was discovered: [1][2]

(A) Rock Art by Alakaluf natives at Madre de Dios Island, Chile. (B) Reproduction of a Mylodon, at Mylodon Cave, Puerto Natales, Chile. © 2010 by Austin Whittall

At first I thought it represented a person (actually the article describes it as "an anthropomorphic figure"[2], but it has a third "leg" right between its other two legs; which may either represent a well endowed male or, more likely, a tail (furthermore, the tail is longer than the two legs).

I am quite certain of this because most other drawings of naked men represent them with "normal" sized penis, as can be seen in the composite below which has several human figures (men) drawn at different locations in Patagonia:

Male Human Figures from different rock art sites in Patagonia.
Adapted from [3] by Austin Whittall

The Alakaluf rock art on the other hand is not human-like, actually the opposite: it has an "animal appearance", long and slender, long tailed, long dangling arms. It even looks hairy due to the dashed or dotted technique used in the drawing.

Anyway, I thought that it would be interesting since the Alakaluf natives lived in this region moving along the Patagonian fjords and sounds in their canoes. They could have easily come across an extant Mylodon in relatively recent times (the rock art is not yet dated) and drawn it.

Sources.

[1] Ultima Patagonia 2006 Rapport scientifique Expedition franco-chilienne et internationale a Madre de Dios (Magallanes, Chili). Expédition nationale 2006
de la Féderation Française de Speleologie. Association Centre Terre - www.centre-terre.fr. pp. 89+. Image is Fig. 20.
[2]Mairie Richard, Bernard Tourte, Stephane Jaillet, Joel Despain, Benjamin Lans, Franck Brehier, Luc-Henri Fage, Laurent Morel, et al., (2009). Geomorphic and archaeological feautes of coastal caves in Madre de Dios Archipielago (Patagonia, Chile)Proceedings of 15th International Congress of Speleology, Kerrville, Texas, USA, 19-26 july 2009. Symposium on Karst Islands.
[3] P. Bosch-Gimpera (1964). El Arte Rupestre de America. Anales de Antropología. Vol 1, No 1. pp. 30+. Fig. 9.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Out of Africa and into America - H. erectus

 
Thinking about how our friend Homo erectus could have got in to America from his Old World home (the Bering route is very plausible but it is also cold and long), I wondered if H. erectus could have just come across the Atlantic Ocean from his original home in Africa.

I was aware of H. erectus sites along eastern Africa but did not know if there were any along the western coast of Africa (where they would have had to "set sail" for America). Well, the answer is yes, H. erectus did live in western Africa as shown in the map below: [1]

Above: Homo erectus occupation at 1 million years ago resulting from colonisation most consistent with the observed record of arrival (100%=black, 0%=white). From: [1]

You can see that they spanned Africa's Atlantic seaboard from Senegal to Angola. Could they have used simple log rafts to fish or move along the coast? Did a storm or sea currents drag them across the Atlantic?

A raft, wind and currents

The trade winds blow in a western direction in the Tropical Atlantic areas [2] and, the Southern Equatorial Current has a speed of about 1 meter / sec, which means that a raft would be pushed 86.4 km per day (53.7 miles/day) in a westerly direction. [2]

The current links the Gulf of Guinea and the easternmost point of Brazil (where the cities of Natal and Recife are located). The minimum distance between both continents is there, and is only 2,800 km (1,740) mi. Which at the speed given above would mean a voyage of about 32 days. Of course, the sea current does not traverse the Ocean at its narrowest point, so we could estimate a distance of about 5,000 km (3,107 mi) from the bottom of the Gulf of Guinea to Natal. This would take 58 days to cover.

The Atlantic has been crossed from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean by Dr. Hannes Lindeman in 1956, in 72 days, solo, in a kayak. So it is possible to cross the Ocean in flimsy craft and survive.[3]

See my post on the navigating abilities of H. erectus, who sailed across open stretches of sea in Indonesia some 800,000 years ago.


Additionally, the African Homo erectus, could explain the findings in Brazil (Lagoa Santa area) and Buenos Aires. The map below summarizes the route, the sites and the location:

Homo erectus a possible route from Africa to America across the Atlantic Ocean.
Copyright 2011 by Austin Whittall

Now, to survive, reproduce and grow enough to expand and move across the continent towards Buenos Aires and north, to Mexico, the group must have had females, and should have been quite large. Perhaps it was not a chance event, perhaps they embarked on an expedition and the winds and currents pushed them west.

Actually, the discovery of Brazil by Portuguese sailors in 1500 is attributed to this same effect: Pedro Alvarez de Cabral was sailing to India when a storm drove him away from his route.

My next post will summarize and index all my previous posts on H. erectus to make a simple entry point to access all the information. Future posts will also be referenced there.

Still, I have not found any references to unusual Patagonian skulls or remains. I will keep on searching.

Sources.

[1] Paul Valdes, Bruce Sellwood, Steve Mithen, Sam Smith, Alan Haywood, Sarah Elton and Hannah O'Regan, Advanced computer modelling of hominin dispersal from Africa: integrating archaeological and palaeoclimatic simulations. The Environmental Factors in the Chronology of Human Evolution & Dispersal programme (EFCHED). Natural Environment Research Council.
[2] S. G. Philander, (2001). Atlantic Ocean Equatorial Currents
[3] Hannes Lindeman (1957). Alone at sea for 72 days. The true story of a German doctor who sails and paddles a 17 foot kayak across the Atlantic Ocean. NSW Sea Kayaker vol. 41. Citing a Life Magazine Article (July 22, 1957).

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Homo Erectus in America - More

 

Map of Melanesia. From [2]

Came across a very interesting article online today, it relates to some remains found in a Siberian cave, at Denisova, (I posted about this in my entry on Homo erectus in America - Part 2), which shared a common ancestor with modern humans about one million years ago.

"Densiovians" and Melanesians

Well, this article "DNA says new human relative roamed widely in Asia" mentions that these Denisovians were not restricted to their cave habitat in central Asia, but, seem to have spread out across Asia:

Scientists found evidence that in the genomes of people now living in Melanesia, about 5 percent of their DNA can be traced to Denisovans, a sign of ancient interbreeding that took researchers by surprise.[1]

Melanesia, as the map above shows, is just above Australia and comprises not only Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia, but also Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Somehow these distant relatives got their DNA into modern Melanesians in Southeast Asia, but there are two possibilities:

1. Mating with modern humans after we came out of Africa and reached that area some 55,000 years ago.
2. No intermixing. Both Denisovians and modern Melanesians have retained ancestral strands of DNA in our genes, sequences that other modern humans have lost.

"Denisovians" in America?

It would be interesting to see if modern Amerindian populations have the same ancestral DNA as Denisovians, which would indicate that either the Denisovians came to America first, and mixed with the later humans when we arrived in America later.
Or, that a group of humans with Denisovian DNA moved into America and settled there.

Perhaps Denisovians could explain the "hominid" ape men or "Bigfoot" sightings in America just as easily as Homo erectus could. What is needed is to prove that one or the other came to America: we must find remains or artifacts made by them.

Melanesians in America?

Regarding people in South East Asia and their possible migration to America, I wrote about it in my book [3]:

mtDNA taken from skeletons of the now extinct Yagan, Selk’nam and Alakaluf populations as well as Aonikenk Tehuelche show that they, from a genetic viewpoint, were different from all other American natives (including the Mapuche in northern Patagonia).
[...]
Human remains discovered in Brazil show a very strong resemblance to modern South Pacific people, suggesting that America was first colonized by the generalized human (Homo sapiens) population that inhabited East Asia in the Late Pleistocene. These people arrived in America in very ancient times long before the Mongolid morphology of the forebearers of the Clovis had evolved [3]

Portuguese anthropologist Mendes Correia (1888-1960) proposed a migration route for these "Austronesians" from their homeland in Australia via Tasmania, the Antarctic and Drake Passage, instead of a trans-Pacific oceanic route, entering South America at Tierra del Fuego some 8,000 years BP. It his a highly disputed concept and lacks archaeological proof. Alternatively they could have sailed across the Pacific Ocean.

This same notion, but regarding the Melanesians reaching America through Polinesia was put forward by Erland Nordenskiold in 1931, [4] an event which would have happened long before the arrival of modern Polynesians in the region. This could account for many similar myths shared by peoples on both sides of the Pacific, and particularly, some that are common to Australians and Patagonians regarding mythical (or maybe real) monsters and entities such as: Yowie, Gubba, Mimi, Bunyip, the "Dreamtime". Or maybe these coincidences can be due to the "genetic memory" mentioned in yesterday's post, a shared "archetype" common to all humans.

Interesting reading on Homo erectus in America and very interesting topics regarding our ancient ancestor: The Pleistocene Coalition, they challenge conventional (or should I say "orthodox" views in a scientific way).

Sources.

[1] Malcom Ritter, (2010). DNA says new human relative roamed widely in Asia, AP Science writer. 22.12.10.
[2] ANU College of Asia & the Pacific. The Australian National University
Melanesia
[3] Whittall Austin. (2010). Unpublished. Patagonian Monsters. Zagier & Urruty. Soon to be released.
[4] Kenneth Emory, (1942). Oceanian Influence on American Indian Culture. Nordenskiold's veiw. Volume 51 1942 > The Journal of Polynesian Society. Vol 51 No. 2 pb 126-135

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Strange (dinosaur?) in Tierra del Fuego

 

Some strange Fuegian creatures. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall

The image above is just a detail of an ancient map, Tabula Magellanica qua Tierrae del Fuego drawn in 1671 by John Ogilby and Jan Janssonius. The Strait of Magellan can be seen just above the two central blue colored arrows. The Pacific Ocean is on the lower left side, by the green arrow.

The map shows several animals and some natives too, on the island, named Magellanica.

Normal people and animals

The map shows some Rhea or ñandu being hunted by the local natives (though there are no "South American ostriches" on the island - see my post about the intriguing ohi for more on this matter). The "ostriches" are marked with blue colored arrows and are roughly to scale.

Then there are two penguins (green arrow), also drawn to scale.

Weird creatures

But then, there are two bulky bodied animals with long swan-necks and also long tails (marked with the red arrows), which have a bird-like (or reptilian) look.

They are quite similar to an image that I posted some time ago in my post Patagonian living dinosaurs.

I wonder what they are. They are big, about the size of an adult person. Too big to be any of the known Patagonian birds.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Maned Wolf (Aguará Guazú) in Patagonia

 

Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus ). From the Internet

In previous posts on the Falkland Island wolf, possible Patagonian wolves and the Water Tiger I mentioned the Maned Wolf or Aguará Guazú, whose image is shown above. Today I will give some more details on this stange canid, related of course to cryptozoology in Patagonia.

Current status of the Aguará Guazú

The animal which is South America's largest Canid, was once widely distributed in the continent from the north of Brazil to Uruguay, including Paraguay, Bolivia and Central Argentina. Nowadays it is restricted to central and eastern Brazil, north of Argentina, central Paraguay, and is only found in very small numbers in Bolivia and Uruguay.

It is about 1 meter (3.3 ft.) tall and 1,30 m long (4.2 ft.). It has a reddish coat and a fox-like appearance (like a long-legged red fox). These long legs may have originated as the animal adapted to an environment with tall grasses, as can be found in the wetlands of Southern South America.

It has a sharp dark snout and a mane (hence its name) of black hairs from its head to its shoulders. The mane stands upright when the animal is alarmed. Its red color is interrupted by white areas on the tip of its tail, the inside of its upright ears and its throat. It is omnivorous and eats fruits as well as small animals.

Endangered, it is protected in Argentina and Brazil (where road kills are the most common cause of death). Its environment being encroached by man, is also a threat to its long term survival. Some 24,000 animals survive in the wild and it is listed on CITES "Red List" as Near Threatened.

Did they live in Patagonia?

There has been some debate about this and a lot of inconclusive evidence. Lets go over it:

1. Musters (1870). This English explorer rode from Punta Arenas by the Strait of Magellan all the way to Carmen de Patagones, on the Negro River, with a group of Tehuelche natives (his journal is a very interesting account of their way of life). I marked his itinerary with a blue line and with the number "1" in the map below.

Musters had been told about the "water tiger" and trying to find some animal that could account for it, after discarding the puma and the jaguar, he also discarded the aguará guazú, because, having seen a hide of one of them in Carmen de Patagones at the end of his journey, he was told by the natives that its habitat did not extend into Patagonia.[5]

2. De la Cruz (1806). Who crossed Patagonia in from Concepción in Chile, to Buenos Aires in Argentina. His route is shown in the map "2" with a blue line. He recorded that in Neuquén the native Peguenches [sic] told him that “there are other animals they call oop, whose body is shaped like a dog, which it resembles with its head, snout, legs and tail and with the ears of a cow; they state that the wool that covers it is like that of a sheep, a span or more in length, very soft and of a bright yellow color”.[6] It was named after its high-pitched yell.

Map showing current and past distribution of the Maned Wolf in Argentina. Adapted from [4]

As the photograph above shows, "oop" and maned wolf are both dog-like. However its ears are not cow like (click to see cow ears image). Its mane is long and it has a dense fur, but these are not "a span or more" in length (9 in. or 22 cm).

3. The Natives. Apparently the “Northern Tehuelche” had a specific word to name the aguará guazú. This word was “huica. [1]

I found a reference that states that the “Araucano” (apparently Mapuche or Araucanized Tehuelches - Puelches) called it “guequen” [2].

However, Ernest Moesbach who included the word in his dictionary, does not indicate that it was the name of the maned wolf, he placed it under the following entry:

Guaquén (Huaquén) Guaqui: huaquen
huaqueñ: meter mucha gritería, haber ruido continuo; ladrar del zorro. [3]

Which, translated from Spanish, means: "shout a lot, a continuous noise; the bark of a fox".

Comments.

Moesbach's dictionary seems to imply that the "quequen" was not a maned wolf, but a variety of fox.

There is strong evidence of the animal having lived close to Patagonia's northern reaches in some wetlands (now dissecated) in Mendoza, La Pampa and San Luis provinces along the now intermitent (due to water usage upstream for irrigation) Chadileuvú - Salado - Curacó river system. Also it had been reported in Buenos Aires province in the XVIII^th century. But there is no fossil or physical evidence that the animal ever lived in Patagonia or in Chile.

Though there is a "Northern Tehuelche" word for it, there is no equivalente Aonikenk word, meaning it was not found south of Río Negro. Furthermore, these "Northern Tehuelche" had expanded outside of Patagonia into the Pampas where, as mentioned above, there were aguaras. The Mapuche word as used in Argentina may have also come from this source as there was a great cultural flow between Tehuelche and Mapuche in this region the former adopting the Mapuche language and the latter embracing many Tehuelche beliefs.

There was probably some other canids in the area, the above mentioned "Andean Wolf" or perhaps some distant relative of the "Falkland Islands Wolf - Fox", but in my opinion, there were no Maned Wolves in Patagonia.

Bibliography.

[1] Friedrich Hunziker, Félix Faustino Outes, (1928). Vocabulario y franseario genakenn (puelche). Coni. pp. 280.
[2] José M. Suárez García, (1940) Historia del partido de Lobería. Talleres Graf. San Pablo. vol 1.
[3] Ernesto Wilhelm de Moesbach, (1944). Voz de Arauco: explicación de los nombres indígenas de Chile. pp. 98
[4] Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad
[5] Musters, G., (2007). Vida entre los Patagones: un año de excursiones desde el estrecho de Magallanes hasta el río Negro: 1869-1870. B. Aires: Continente-Pax. pp. 104 and ff.
[6] De la Cruz, L. (1835). Descripción de la naturaleza de los terrenos que se comprenden en los Andes, poseídos por los peguenche... B. Aires: Imprenta del Estado. pp. 25-26.

Further reading: Canids.org.

Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Nahuelito as a possible radioactive mutation

 

Huemul Island fusion complex. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall

On the web I have read that Nahuelito may be a mutation produced by radioactivity caused by “nuclear experiments that were done on Huemul Island during the 50’s”. [11]

In today’s post we will look into this assertion and see if it is true or just another wild theory.

Argentina after World War II

Argentina’s military dictators (who ran the country from 1943 until 1946) were, to put it mildly, pro-Nazis and fascists.[12] They were of extreme rightist ideology, and as such, they resisted taking sides during World War II, adopting a neutral position which bordered on supporting the Nazi regime. Only when it was completely clear that the Nazi’s were going to lose the war, did the Argentine government severe its diplomatic ties with the Axis powers (Jan. 1944) and shortly after declare war on them on March 23, 1945.

For those who may not be aware of these facts former President Juan Perón was a Colonel in the Army during this period. He later became president (after winning the general elections in 1946) and after changing the constitution to allow his reelection, was chosen president again in 1952. He then gave his government a dictatorial tint (jailing those who opposed him, censoring the news, etc.). He was ousted by a military coup in 1955. He was also pro-Nazi.

The army had sent him in 1938, on a tour of duty to Spain, Germany and Italy. During his training there, he became convinced that the Axis would win the war and that Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship in Italy was a model to follow in Argentina, and which he did impose during his second term as president.

After Germany surrender, he allowed refugees from Germany to settle in Argentina, and, it is said, embraced escaped Nazi leaders.[13] It is a shameful stain for Argentina’s honor that this happened, and that the "Peronist" regime allowed war criminals to find a safe haven in our country (i.e Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke, and others).

The former Nazi scientists

In this context, the Argentine government, seeking to position Argentina among the leading countries of the world, also enticed scientists from the defeated Germany to settle in the country.

With their help, Argentina would manufacture and fly the first Jet fighter plane in Latin America (1947) which was perfected (Pulqui II) by famous German aircraft designer Kurt Tank. Unfortunately Argentina’s economic woes killed the project by the early 60’s.

But not only was Peron looking for military technology, he was interested in nuclear energy, not for weapon production but as a source for cheap energy to develop Argentina's steel and aluminum industries.

Richter the bogus nuclear man

Ronald Richter (1909-1991) was a German [3] (actually born in Falkenau which then was part of Austria and now is part of the Czech Republic) refugee, a physical chemist who claimed to have a degree from the University of Prague.

After Argentine authorities contacted Professor Kurt Tank they invited Dr. Richter to work on a nuclear fission reactor. Dr. Richter signed a contract with the Argentine government in October 1948, and in June 1949, he began building his laboratory on Huemul Island.

He chose the place because Lake Nahuel Huapi offered plenty of clean water, and the place lacked dust which could wreak havoc with the delicate instruments needed in the plant. Furthermore, being an island, it was a safe spot to keep spies away.

Richter was not interested in conventional nuclear fission (as in Atomic bombs or current nuclear reactors that generate electricity all around the world) but in fusion using a technology that he had pioneered in Nazi Germany in 1942.

Fusion, unlike fission, is what powers the stars and the sun, it is the energy inside Hydrogen bombs. It releases enormous amounts of energy when two “light” atoms “fuse” into one. (Fission, the stuff of A-bombs on the other hand, is the energy released by splitting large unstable Uranium or Plutonium atoms).

Until today nobody has managed to design or power up a self sustaining fusion reactor that releases more energy than it uses. It is clear that Peron and Richter were aiming high.

He worked hard and soon, in February 1951, claimed that at his Huemul Island reactor he had “succeeded in sustaining a controlled fusion reaction using his shock wave technology”. [1]

Peron immediately saw the political advantages and quickly (prematurely) announced these surprising and ground breaking results to the world on March 24.[9]

Peron had bought from Richter the idea of cheap energy generated by fusion reaction as a way to promote industrialization and help forge a “New Argentina”. [2] He even went as far as announcing that he would sell atomic energy in liter and half-liter bottles for family and industrial use [3]:

very soon we will have a surplus of energy with [the technology that] we are developing at Huemul . We will sell it in bottles of one and half liters [1 and half pints respectively] for industrial and family use, which can be used to provide light, cook food and heat irons [10]

Incidentally, this announcement drove the US to begin its own fusion program. [2] Which still has to produce a self sustaining fusion reactor.

Trials continued and in December, Richter suggested to Peron that some kind of joint venture with the U.S. would quicken the development of this technology.[4]

But then something happened and in March 1952 Richter said that his work was being sabotaged. A commission was sent to investigate in September 1952, which issued a report “Informe del Dr. Jose Antonio Balseiro referente a la inspection realizada en la isla Huemul en setiembre de 1952" , which concluded with the following phrase:

Based on the above mentioned proof and comments, the undersigned considers himself authorized to assert that there is no serious scientific basis in Dr. Richter’s claim that he had attained a controlled thermonuclear reaction, deeply regretting having had to reach this conclusion.

Buenos Aires, September 16, 1952

This marked Richter’s fall.

By November of that year, Richter was sacked and all 300 workers in the fusion pilot plant dismissed. [5] In September 1954 he was denounced at Congress because of the non replicability of his tests. He was held in jail in Congress for a few days.

He would later leave the country, but he returned and died here in 1991.

Dr. Balseiro, who had issued the condemning report would later head the Argentine National Commission on Atomic Energy (CNEA), which successfully developed and built fission reactors for peaceful purposes, one of which was located at the “Centro Atomico Bariloche”, right in front of Huemul Island, on the mainland (see map above).

Huemul island became a familiar pun to the Argentines who came up with the anagram: “Huele a mula” which, in can be roughly translated as “it is a rip-off”, "someone is cheating". [3]

Radioactivity?

Richter’s fusion plant did not involve uranium or fissionable radioactive material, he merely created hot plasma gas using hydrogen and lithium. Non-radioactive products. So we can not trace any radioactivity to his activities on the island.

The island with its facilities remained in the hands of the CNEA, but lack of maintenance and active destruction by the Argentine Army in 1978 (during a border conflict with Chile, the army used the buildings for military games and shelled the place). [14]

The CNEA handed it over to the government of Río Negro province, which in turn ceded it to the Municipality of San Carlos de Bariloche, which declared it a “Historical, Ecological and Touristic Municipal Reserve” and now (Oct. 2010) is inviting companies to bid in an international tender to manage the Reserve as a tourist attraction.

But lets go back to radioactivity.

After the Huemul fiasco, the CNEA undertook serious research and after finding large uranium reserves in Mendoza province (1951) it purchased a synchrocyclotron (1952), opened the “Balseiro Institute”in Bariloche (1955) and manufactured its first fission reactor (1958), located in Buenos Aires. [8]

At Bariloche there is one low power nuclear reactor, the “Reactor Argentino RA-6”, which began operating in 1982. It is located at the Centro Atomico Bariloche and is used not only for teaching purposes (at the Balseiro Institute), but also for cancer treatment. It is a multipurpose reactor with an output of 500 KW, using enriched uranium (20%) and Uraniuim 235 (80%). [15]

Though it was built on a fault (see my post on “Nahuelito gas and bubbles"), the risk of a nuclear accident is extremely low. And “there is no evidence that it has produced radioactive contamination since it began operating”.[9]

It is supervised and audited by the ARN (Nuclear Regulatory Authority) on a yearly basis and samples are taken from the soil and water in the surrounding areas to check for radioactive contamination. So far none has been detected.[16]

Huemul Island

The island itself, has a surface area of 75 hectares (188 acres) of which only 10% will be used for touristic purposes. [7] The remaining part of the island is covered by forests. It is located just off the coast between Playa Bonita and Puerto Moreno. In the map above you can see how close it is to the current Centro Atomico Bariloche facilities.

Read more about its real name (not HueMul but HueNul).

Conclusions

Richter’s fusion plant did not release radioactivity in the early 50’s.
Current fission reactor has not released radioactivity (1982-2010).
There is no possibility that any local animals could have received radioactive dosage from the CNEAs activities in the area and mutated into lake monsters.

The “mutation due to radioactivity” theory can be dismissed.

Bibliography

[1] Henry Stevens, (2007). Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science and Technology Adventures Unlimited Press, pp. 263.
[2] Leslie Bethell, (1984). The Cambridge history of Latin America. Cambridge University Press. Vol. 6. pp. 502.
[3] Ronald C. Newton, (1992). The "Nazi menace" in Argentina, 1931-1947. Stanford University Press, pp. 379.
[4] New York Times. Argentine Plans Atomic Exchange; Richter, Research Chief, Tells of Negotiations With 'Highly Industrialized' Country. 11.12.1951.
[5] Edward A. Morrows, (1952). Peron's Atom Dream Fades; Director Reported Arrested; Argentine Dream on Atom Explodes. 05.12.1952,
[6] Informe del Dr. José Antonio Balseiro referente a la inspección realizada en la isla Huemul en Setiembre de 1952. Instituto Balseiro.
[7] Breve Historia del Proyecto Isla Huemul. Bariloche Municipality.
[8] CNEA. Website
[9] ParksWatch, Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, Amenazas.
[9] La Segunda Tiranía. Comisión 12 Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (Capítulo I). Antecedentes para la creación del “Centro Huemul”
[10] Alfonso Crespo, (1978). Eva Perón, viva o muerta Librerías-Editorial Studium, pp. 286.
[11] Anita González. (2004). El monstruo del Nahuel Huapi. Extraño y gigantesco animal concita interés de argentinos. Austral. Temuco.
[12] Ricardo M. Setaro, (1944). Argentina, fascist headquartersAutores. Council for Pan American democracy.
[13] Uki GoñI, (2002). The real Odessa: smuggling the Nazis to Per&oacutEe;n's Argentina Editor Granta.
[14] Ernesto R. Ríos, (2007). Planta Piloto Huemul: se cumplen 56 años … 26.03.2007
[15] INVAP. Reactores RA-6 y RA-8 de Argentina.
[16] Autoridad Regulatoria Nuclear, ARN. Report.


Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Miocene South America a map

 

South America during the Mid Miocene (about 10-14 Million years ago).
Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall

In several posts I have written about marine creatures from the Miocene Epoch (which spans from about 23.3 to 5.3 Million years ago). During this period the geography of South America was quite different from what it is nowadays. As the map above shows, vasts parts of the continent were submerged by marine ingressions due to higher sea levels. Some "islands" remained safe and dry (the highlands which comprised the Brazilian and Guyanan shields as well as the rising Proto Andes). All the rest was under water.

Submerged South America

During the mid Miociene, between 10 and 20 million years ago, the sea levels rose and reached a maximum level, some 30 to 40 m (100 - 130 ft.) above current sea levels about 14 million years ago.

Seawater flooded the interior of South America forming "epicontinental" seas. There is still some discussion regarding the exact extension of these seas and if they were all interconnected however the fact remains that most of the Amazon basin and the Paranáa River basin and the Pampas were under the sea.

Parts of Patagonia were submerged (Somuncuráa Plateau and the Deseado shield) kept dry.

Cryptozoological implications

This marine enviornment would have created new access routes for Northern Hemisphere sea-going mammals such as the ancestors of modern seals, manatees and walruses. We have already mentioned the 'Central American seaway" (left red arrow) through Panama which linked the Caribbean with the Pacific Ocean as a route for dispersion. But, as you can see in the map, another narrow seaway connected the Caribbean with the Pebesian Sea (right red arrow). From here these creatures could have moved east into the Amazon or South all the way down to Patagonia.

Could the marine creatures discovered in southern Peru and Northern Chile ('walruses', giant marine sloths and sea cows) have counterparts on the eastern side of the Andes? In fact, the amazonian manatee and all other manatees around the world are said to have originated in Colombia (from the potamosiren). One of the members of the American manatee family (Trichechidae), the ribodon could be found all the way from the coast of North Carolina in the U.S. to Argentina in the south.[1][2]

The lack of fossils in this region which was formerly the coast of these ancient seas may be due to their placement on the eastern foothills of the Andes. An area which is covered by dense jungles in the north and central parts of South America and, in the whole area, by hundreds of feet of sediment deposited there by the rivers dragging soil from the constant erosion of the Andes.

Maybe future exploration may yield new fossils that could help clarify the origin of some of South American cryptids (and hopefully, Patagonian cryptids too).

Quizás futuras exploraciones resulten en nuevos fósiles que puedan explicar algunos de los criptidos sudamericanos (y patagónicos).

This seaway joining the Caribbean and the South Atlantic is worth deeper analysis from a cryptozoological viewpoint as a route for cryptid dispersion.

Bibliography.

[1] Daryl P. Domning, (1982). Evolution of Manatees: A Speculative History.
Journal of Paleontology, vol. 56, No. 3 (May, 1982), pp. 599-619.
[2] Evolution of the Sirenia
[3] For the map:

Kirby M.X., Jones D.S., MacFadden B.J., (2008) Lower Miocene Stratigraphy along the Panama Canal and Its Bearing on the Central American Peninsula. PLoS ONE 3(7): e2791. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002791

Marengo, H.G., (2000). Rasgos micropaleontológicos de los depósitos de la transgresión Entrerriense-Paranense en la cuenca Chaco-Paranense y noroeste argentino, República Argentina. En: F.G. Aceñolaza y R. Herbst (eds.), El Neógeno de Argentina. Serie Correlación Geológica 14: 29-45.

Alonso, Ricardo N., (1999). El terciario de la Puna salte˜ña In: Congreso Geológico Argentino, 1999, Salta. Relatorio XIV congreso geológico argentino, tomo I. , 1954. p.311 – 316.

Bush, Mark B., and Oliveira, Paulo E. de, (2006). The rise and fall of the Refugial Hypothesis of Amazonian speciation: a paleoecological perspective. Biota Neotrop., vol.6, n.1. ISSN 1676-0603. doi: 10.1590/S1676-06032006000100002.

Lea este post en español

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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

Long necked seals in South America

 

Size comparison Long Necked Seal and man.
Adapted from [2] by Austin Whittall

There is a fossil seal, the Acrophoca longirostris (the second part of its name means 'long face' in Latin), which lived in the Pacific Ocean by the coast of Peru and Chile during the Miocene and Pliocene periods (23.3 to 2.5 Million years ago). It has been described as a “swan-necked” seal.

As most 'lake monsters' are described as having 'swan necks', this seal if still alive, would be the ideal candidate to fill in the lake monster's shoes. Lets get the facts:

Swan-necked seals

First the bad news: according to paleozoologist Darren Naish, they were not so long-necked; thought they would “have looked longer in the neck than any extant seal”.[1] These were not mammalian "plesiosaurs".

However Acrophoca had longer cervical vertebrae and a cervical column (neck) than modern extant seals.

Their neck measured 32.9 cm (or approx. 1 ft 1 in), while regular monachine seals’ necks are about 21.8 – 24.9 cm (8.6 – 9.8 in.). To express this in another way, the neck of these Acrophoca represented 21% of the length of their vertebral column while in other terrestrial carnivores and seals it is about 17-19%. Not much of a difference.

Based on this, Naish concludes that “sadly, ‘swan-necked seal’ really is a bit of an exaggeration”.[1]

Regarding its placement within the “seal” family it is a hot topic among seal experts and some have suggested that it is a lobodontin and as such belongs to the group that includes the leopard seal (Hydrurga), the crabeater seal (Lobodon) and Ross’ seal (Ommatophoca).

If this was the case, we should look at these living lobodontins to get an idea of their behavior and appearance. Leopard seals are big carnivores (males can measure up to 3.3 m long and weigh close to 450 kg -11 ft and 1,000 lbs.) It is the top predator in its environment with formidable jaws and canine teeth 2.5 cm (1 in.) long. It feeds on penguins, squid and seals of other species.

Naish and Stig Walsh described some remains of Acrophoca discovered in Chile in 2002, which had longer skulls than the A. longirostris. Perhaps more fossils may indeed turn up and give us a clearer picture of this group of seals and its evolution.

From a cryptozoological point of view, this finding (which came from the same site as those of the "walrus", sea cows Odobenocetops, and the giant sea sloths, Thalassocnus) is very interesting, as a long-necked seal could readily explain many "lake monster" sightings in Patagonia.

Long-necked seals. Some facts

Besides the 'real' A. longirostris, there is another "long-necked" seal, one which despite being described by scientists in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, has not been seen again, and therefore remains a mystery. This creature as depicted in the images (above and below) had a very long neck unlike anything seen in other seals.

The image below (adapted from [2]) shows two seals, one, above is the enigmatic “Long neck’d Seal, or Sea Calf”, and the one below is “The common seal”. I have included a seal skeleton for comparison purposes [3]. But first, lets go to the story.

Long-necked seal and common seal, body and neck length comparison.
Adapted from [2] by Austin Whittall

James Parson wrote a paper in 1751 in which he described five “species” of Phoca, among them he mentioned a Dr. Grew’s “long neck’d seal” from an unknown locality. This peculiar seal was actually part of the Royal Society’s Museum, and as such it was included in a Catalog published in 1681, where it was described as follows:

From his nose end to his fore-feet, and from thence to his tail, are of the same measure [4]

Long-necked seal Dr. Grew's original text. From [4]

Also, “instead of his fore-feet, he hath rather fins; not having any claws thereon, as have the other kinds.” [4]

Parsons described a ‘young´specimen which measured 7.5 ft. (2,28 m) long. We ignore the size of an adult. However, as can be seen above, the specimen was 41% longer than the 'common' seal and its neck and head represented 43% of the total body length (which coincides with Grew's remarks of 50/50 relationship of nose to fore feet and tail to forefeet). In the common seal, the head plus neck is only 26% of the total body length. Indeed it is a very big "long-necked" seal.

What kind of seal was it? It is generally considered as either a mythical or an indeterminable species. its scientific name, as given by Dr. Shaw in his Zoology(1800) is Phoca longicollis or long-necked seal. [6]

Allen [6] contends that the shape of its front feet and its longer neck, make it an "Eared Seal", or an "Otaridae". However Fischer (1827) in his Synopsis) places it with the lobodontins: the Sea-Leopard of Weddell which is an Earless Seal or a "Phocidae".

Allen also asserts that its habitat though unknown must have been either the Cape of Good Hope or Southern South America because no seals from Australia or the North Pacific reached England before 1686. And states that it may have been a Sea-Lion (Otaria leonina).[6] These are "Otaridae" and have visible ears.

By the way,in 1670 Sir John Narborough explored Patagonia from Puerto Deseado on the Atlantic to Valdivia, in Chile, went through the Strait of Magellan twice and spent part of a winter at San Julián. He could have brought the seal with him. Before his voyage we can only mention Cavendish's and Drake's expeditions, but they were more interested in plundering Spanish riches than describing the native fauna.

The Patagonian link

So here we have an earless long-necked seal which may have lived in the Southern reaches of the South Atlantic Ocean, similar to the "sea lion" which can be found on the coasts of Patagonia.

We also have fossil evidence of a "swan necked" seal in Peru and northern Chile, which despite being far from Patagonia, places these creatures in the same part of the globe.

The "long necked" seal is described in Gronovius (1760) Bibliotheca as having a "capite lutrae",[7] that is "with an otter head" (Bold, mine). This detail combined with the possible geographic location, its long neck, lack of ears and size make it a likely candidate to embody our mysterious Patagonian iemisch or water tiger, or perhaps our Strait of Magellan Sea Monster.

Now the bad news: we should bear in mind however that iemisch had clawed paws and a long tail. the long-necked seal lacks both ("not having any claws"). So, perhaps some other species within the group could account for our iemisch.

Piling speculation on speculation we can also imagine that it may even have adapted to freshwater (like the landlocked Lake Baikal seals Pusa sibirica or those at lakes Ladoga adn Saimaa have done in Russia) and running upstream from the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans, made its home and lived in the Patagonian lakes until quite recently. All this of course is wild guessing.

In my book, based on etymology and some comparisons of the words used by the Mapuches and different Tehuelche Groups to name seals and other aquatic animals, I came upon the possibility of a freshwater seal in Patagonia. Below is an excerpt from my book on this intriguing subject:

Excerpt from my book Monsters of Patagonia on freshwater Patagonian seals. Copyright 2010 by Austin Whittall.

Map showing sea lion, sea leopard, fossils of swan-necked seal and also Iemisch. Copyright 2010 by Austin Whittall.

Note: Above, the sea wolf (South American Sea Lion) is also known as Lobo Marino de dos pelos) Otaria flavescens. The "sea lion" mentioned by Allen (Lobo Marino de un pelo) or Otaria leonina is also known as Otaria Byronia.

Bibliography.

[1] Darren Naish, (2006). http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/02/swan-necked-seals.html> target="_blank" title="External link">Swan-necked seals. Tetrapod Zoology. 04.02.06
[2] Darren, Naish, (2008).
The Long-necked seal, described 1751. Tetrapod Zoology. 25.09.2008. The image’s original source is Tab VI in: Parsons, J., (1751). A dissertation upon the Class of the Phocae Marinae. Philosophical Transactions 47, 109-122.
[3] Gaston Bonnier Squelettes de phoque et de dauphin
[4] Nehemiah Grew, (1681). Museum regalis societatis or a Catalogue et description of the natural and artificial rarities. W. Rawlins, Ed. pp. 95.
[5] Michael A. Woodley, Darren Naish and Hugh P. Shanahan, (2009). How many extant pinniped species remain to be described? Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 20(4):225-235.
[6] Joel A. Allen, (1974). History of North American pinnipeds. Ayer. pp 214.
[7] Gronovius Laurentius, (1760). Bibliotheca regni animalis atque lapidei, seu, Recensio auctorum et librorum : qui de regno animali & lapideo methodice, physice, medice, chymice, philologice, vel theologice tractant, in usum naturalis historiae studiosorum pp. 203

Further reading

Muizon, C. de, (1981). Les vertébrés fossiles de la formation Pisco (Pérou). Première partie: deux nouveaux Monachinae (Phocidae, Mammalia) du Pliocene de Sud-Sacaco. Travaux de l’Insitut Français d’Études Andines 22, 1-161.
Walsh, S. A. and Naish, D. (2002). Fossil seals from late Neogene deposits in South America: a new pinniped (Carnivora, Mammalia) assemblage from Chile. Palaeontology 45, 821-842.



Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

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