Nature's Amusements

Okay, so Emily did an excellent job of describing the wondrous qualities of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales in La Plata, but I wanted to elaborate a bit, if only because it is, I think, the coolest thing I’ve seen so far in Argentina. In addition to the incredible “bone room” that Emily described, the museum also devotes a great deal of space to the enormous mammals that roamed the Pampas approximately 11,000 years ago. These creatures are arguably more impressive than the dinosaurs. For one, and if I have my ancient history right, they must have cohabited with humans. Farming is supposed to have commenced approximately 10,000 years ago, which means that fairly sophisticated societies of hunter-gatherers were roaming in close proximity to these lumbering beasts.

Furthermore, these things are ridiculously cool looking. In In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin quotes French naturalist Georges Cuvier as describing one of these creatures as originating because “Nature had wanted to amuse herself with ‘something imperfect and grotesque.’” It’s as good a reason as any I can think of for inventing an armadillo so big that you can fit your entire head inside its sinus cavity. If nothing else, these animals make the dinosaurs easier to grasp conceptually. It’s more difficult to try to wrap your head around freakishly large cousins to today’s porcupines, anteaters, armadillos, and sloths. Check out the Wikipedia entries for the Megatherium and Glyptodon to see what I mean.

Finally, if you’re familiar with the afore-mentioned Chatwin book, you might be interested to know that the skin from the Mylodon Listai––the Giant Sloth that figures prominently in In Patagonia––is still on display. (If it’s been awhile since you’ve picked up Chatwin’s book, you only have to reread the first three chapters to know what I’m talking about). Found in a cave on the Last Hope Sound in Patagonia, Chatwin describes the piece of skin as half an inch thick. “Nodules of white cartilage were embedded in it and it looked like hairy peanut brittle.” The picture above is of the piece of skin that Chatwin wrote about, and the one below is of Giant Sloth dung found in the same cave. -NSH