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 were was found
the biggest nest of dinosaurs eggs in the world and the only one were 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 Dinosaurs and the reason why the west region has so many
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"
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The Nest of Paimogo
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11 May 2008 by
mjcv
(Finds: 1 Score: 2)
(Hidden: 0 Score: 0)
(easy)
Block of Dinosaur eggs
Pormenor showing Embryos bones
Palaentologist in action