Carnegie Museum of Natural History
One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
On the ridge
Life on the ridge has been hard, fun, intense, interesting, and overall rich in human experiences.
José Padial and his team of researchers are traveling in the remote Vilcabamba mountains of Peru in the pursuit of biodiversity research. He blogs and sends photos as often as possible capturing his expedition along the way.
February 23, 2016
We are back in the town of Pichari. During the last week we opened a track along a zigzagging ridge and reached 2850 m. We moved from Camp 2 to Camp 4, stopping for a couple of nights at the small and muddy Camp 3. We spent our last days surveying a hyper-humid forest above 2500 m, before starting our descent on the morning of Feb 19th. We reached Pichari last Saturday, February 20th, at night. We were exhausted, but very happy for what we had accomplished.
During three weeks we have surveyed in detail all forested environments of the area: humid montane forests, cloud and elfin forests, and the bushy vegetation that grows on the upper part of upper ridges–known as “ceja de montaña” (mountain eyebrow). We have found many new and known species of amphibians and reptiles unique to each of these environments and made observations on their natural history. We also photographed and recorded them–for most species this is the first time they have been observed, photographed, or recorded in video or audio.
But the expedition is not over yet. Today we got into a ‘Mil M-17’ helicopter and flew from Pichari toward a point at 3800 m on the central and highest part of Vilcabamba, within Otishi National Park. Unfortunately, dense clouds prevented us from landing at our destination. Strong winds, heavy clouds, and electric storms are almost a constant on the upper part of Vilcabamba–During the three weeks we’ve been living on a ridge that leads to the upper part of Vilcabamba, only one evening was the sky open enough for us to have a clear view of the highest part of Vilcabamba.
In a few hours, at dawn, we will be at the headquarters of VRAEM’s Special Commando, waiting for our friendly military crew and for the right climatic conditions for us to fly again. A clear or even a partly clear sky is all we hope for as we are ready to go to bed after preparing our equipment.
I would like to take the opportunity to express our most sincere thanks to the authorities of the Peruvian organizations CODEVRAEM and SERNANP for supporting the Discoverers Expedition to Vilcabamba, and to the personnel of CEVRAEM military base for providing a crew, flying time, and an helicopter.
The Ridge
For three weeks, the team has been opening a track along a ridge from 1,200 (4,000 ft.) m elevation to 2,850 m (9,300 ft.), and surveying all the forested environments found along this altitudinal gradient.
A few recent images:
SnowDay Camp Set Up (we were putting up additional tents for additional people coming into Vega) and coffee in camp on a snow day (coffee thanks to Steven Salisbury).
Matt Lamanna, is a paleontologist and the principal dinosaur researcher at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Matt and his team of researchers blog frequently from the field at antarticdinos.org.
José Padial and his team of researchers are traveling in the remote Vilcabamba mountains of Peru in the pursuit of biodiversity research. He blogs and sends photos as often as possible capturing his expedition along the way.
AP3 Expedition: Antarctica peninsula paleontology project 2016.
February 14, 2016
Part of the team (Eric Roberts, Matt Lamanna, Julia Clarke, and Pat O’Connor) went down to Robertson Island. The weather was perfect. We flew out over the ice in our first helicopter flight with pilot Jim. Seals scampered across large bergs far below us leaving striking tracks. The helo landing was smooth and the outcrop was impressive–a tiny piece of earth exposed on an ice covered island.
The whole group collected abundant invertebrates while Roberts focused on the geologic context. The first thing we saw when prospecting were abundant weathered penguin feathers (not fossil). Mostly, contour feathers, they seemed to have been moulted. Trace fossils were especially common.
Near the end of the day we ended up on the top of the bluff. I hiked out far to the north along the edge of the glacier that covered most of the island. About 20 m out, a tiny differntly-colored object glinted slightly. It turned the end of a harpoon-shaped metal point. It was apparently quite old. The tip was somewhat blunted by design.
I started researching the history of Robertson Island as much as I could with limited resources shipboard that evening.
In 1893, Carl Larsen (of the Larsen ice sheets) named Robertson after supposedly ascending to the top of the volcano to verify its island status. He is supposed to have skied down the glacier–apparently the first ski trip in Antarctica!
I’m facinated that I might have found a tiny piece of anarctic exploration history. Perhaps a flag planted high on the glacier during that trip? Much-weathered wood is preserved in the hollow base of the point and we might be able to carbon date. In another tie-in to our current trip, Larsen’s expedition reported the first fossils from Seymour Island.
Julia Clarke
Julia Clarke is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who studies birds and theropod dinosaurs. The lead principal investigator and project director of the AP3: Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project is Matt Lamanna. Matt and his team of researchers blog frequently from the field at antarticdinos.org.
