Once
upon a time...
...some female carnivorous dinosaurs congregated every
year to lay eggs in the sands close to a calm water lagoon. In this
year, seven females had joined. Youngest of them had six meters of
length, while the oldest one went up to around
powerful eight meters. After choosing a small place close to the
one that already had been used in the previous year, the first
female laid a group of twenty eggs, each one with about 12 cm. The
other females had imitated it during the remaining of the day,
until the nest became a giant concentration of 180 eggs of
carnivorous dinosaur. These dinosaurs protected the nest against
egg eaters such as crocodiles, lizards and some other dinosaurs.
Still thus, with care of not being detected by the dinosaurs, a
crocodile of average size came close to that precious stack of
eggs. Its intention was not to predate the nest and, quickly, it
deposits its own eggs in the middle of the dinosaur's. By finishing
it's task this way, this female crocodile left its offspring well
protected by a group of carnivorous dinosaurs...
With this cache I want to show you the area
where was found the biggest nest of dinosaurs eggs in the world and
the only one where dinosaur's embryos was found in Europe. There,
it was also found three eggs of crocodile which are known as being
the oldest found until now. The palaeontologists believe that
they were placed there to benefit of the Dinosaurs
protection.
This cache was inspired in the monthly
magazine named "CAIS" - September, 2003 edition and,
also, I visited some web sites related to the subject:
Lusodinos and Museu da Lourinhã.
From them, I got to knew the TOPs hold by Portugal relating
to dinosaurs and the reason why the west region has so many
vestiges of dinosaurs - You can know it too if you visit this
cache. I left there some documentation.
When I contacted
Octávio Mateus, (OM)the
Palaeontologist responsible for the Museu da
Lourinhã, asking him the exact location of the spot
where the eggs were found and authorization for the cache, he was
so kind that appointed a meeting with me and, thus, we talked about
geocaching and my intentions. After that, he led me to the nest's
place and I placed the cache some meters away - He asked me
not to publish the exact coords. of the nest but only give an
approximate idea were it is - So, it is at about 15 to 30 meters at
NNE from the cache place - Please don't dig the area. Just look and
imagine how it was at about 150 millions years. If you find
something strange (like a dino's bone or tooth) please contact the
museum. During our conversations, OM became even more
interested in geocaching and he's considering to join us! He also
indicated the museum's future new site
of and a blog spot
site where one can contact him and ask about Palaeontology and
Dinosaurs.
The Hunt:
Park at N39º17.335 W09º20.530
and approach the area at N39º17.310
W09º20.370.
The cache's coords. acquisition conditions
were: Satellites: 30 06W 14 05 25 09 24 17 04 EPE 6m . All coords.
in wgs84.
Remember: Do not change the area in any way.
The nests area's still in the process of exploration. OM
allowed the placement of the cache and its visit under this
conditions.
Cache Content:
- Logbook, pen, stash note.
- Documentation in Portuguese about the area
of Lourinhã and the theme of this cache: The nest of
Paimogo and dinosaurs in Portugal in general.
- Some nice gifts including the "cousin" of my
TB "Sonolento" and some gifts gave by OM to be placed in the cache
(miniature of a dinosaur, some calendars of 2004 and a leaflet off
the museum).
Don't forget:
"Cache in, trash out" and Leave No
Trace
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