National Museum of Natural History - Uruguay

I would give ten years off the beginning of my life to see, only once, Tyrannosaurs Rex come rearing up from the elms of Central Park, a Morgan police horse screaming in its jaws. We can never have enough of nature.

-Edward Abbey
 

Montevideo is packed with wonderful museums.  Last week I went to the National Museum of Natural History.  It’s a small museum located inside of a former prison.  Despite being small, the museum is wonderful and contains exquisite displays of Uruguay’s paleontology, various ecosystems, and history of researching the natural world.  On the walls of the museum are the bones of Pleistocene-era creatures (sloths, glyptodons, toxodons, saber-tooth tigers, mastodons, and terror birds).  The fact that these many of these large beasts co-existed with early humans in North and South America during the Ice Age is remarkable.  I often use my imagination as a time machine and dispatch myself nebulous avatar to lands of ancient civilization and prehistory, just to see how things unfolded, but it is only through art (and possibly hallucinogens) that we will have anything more visceral.  The first room takes visitors on a journey through Uruguay’s prehistoric past.

The second exhibition featured displays of the numerous Uruguayan ecosystems (prairies, wetlands, forests, rivers, seas).   I transcribed some of the museum labels and have posted the text below.  

Atlantic-River Plate Coast, “As Important as it is Populated.”
The coastal area is the point of contact between the terrestrial and the aquatic environment.  The energy it receives from the wind and the waves makes it a highly dynamic transition area.  This environment combines rocky points, beaches, sand dunes, gullies and lagoons, which offer a large number of different habitats for different species.  It is a space where a large number of different biotic and abiotic elements interact with each other and with human beings.  Its high biodiversity as well as its capacity to provide goods and services sustain commercial activities such as fishing and tourism.  

Urban “Concrete Jungle”
An urban ecosystem is an ecological system in a city or a densely-populated area.  These are man-made systems made up of biological and physical elements, which combine natural and artificial elements.  The biological components of these ecosystems are in constant interaction with the human populations and their social and economic characteristics.  Cities are the habitat of several species which have adapted to the specific characteristics of the urban landscape.  Urban plant species are mainly ornamental.  Urban fauna consists of native species which have adapted to the urban landscape, and other species which have been introduced; some of them have adapted to such a degree that they only live in cities. 

Agricultural ecosystem “Modified natural ecosystem”
Agricultural ecosystems are part of the territory which have been altered by human activity.  They are used to produced mainly food, by means of agricultural and cattle-rearing activities alters the natural environment, affecting the quality of the water, the air, and the soils, as well as the flows of nutrients and the structure of native communities.  However, regarding the composition species in space and time, these environments are very dynamic and they can reflect a high diversity for some zoological groups. 

Prairies “Natural Country”
Prairies are made of dense herbaceous vegetation and scarce trees.  The constant action of herbivore animals helps maintain this configuration.  It is a particular environment, which results from the influence of the subtropical, temperate and rainy climate.  It is made up of very diverse, complex, and dynamic assembly of plants, such as small and medium-sized germanous species, and small bushes.  Given the fertility of the soils, the small number of the tree species and the plain set-off the prairie is one of the ecosystems that man has exploited and altered the most.

Native Forest, “Our Forests”
Forests are basically ecosystems made up of trees, where there are also ferns, bushes, lianas, and other plants.  A large percentage of the organic matter in forest resides in the tissues of these plants.  In Uruguay there are different kinds of forests: gallery, parkland, sierra, quebrada, coastal, and palm forests. Our territory hosts more animal species living in forests than expected, given the small surface covered by the forests in the country.  Many forests are severely degraded by the constant and selective logging activities which have taken place over the centuries.  

Wetlands  “Earth Kidneys”
Wetlands are mainly flat lowlands which are constantly covered by water or which are covered by water during long periods of time.  This has an impact on the soils and on the communities of flora and fauna.  They are diversely rich environments with high biological productivity which house aquatic and terrestrial animal and vegetables species.  The most characteristic vegetable formations are red beds, cattail, marshes, and bulrush beds.  These environments provide ecosystem services such as hydrological system regulation and water purification.  Given their irreplaceable role in providing freshwater, they are called “kidneys of the planet.”  Wetlands are fragile and endangered environments, which are currently at great risk of degradation.

 

Territorial Sea “As Singular as it is fragile”
Seventy percent of our planet is covered by oceans and seas.  The marine systems are very dramatic and they are affected by the winds, which cause variations in the salinity and the temperature of the water.  They are also connected by currents, and they are influenced by major phenomena such as the weather, biological productivity, and the migration of sea animals.  This environment presents a highly but little known diversity, due to the fact that many biological groups which are only present in the sea.  The high productivity of these marine ecosystem is key to the development of industrial and artisanal fishing worldwide. 

Atlantic-River Plate Coast
The coastal area is the point of contact between the terrestrial and the aquatic environment.  The energy it receives from the wind and the waves makes it a highly dynamic transition area.  This environment combines rocky points, beaches, sand dunes, gullies, and lagoons, which offer a large number of different habitats for different species.  It is a space where a large number of biotic and abiotic elements interact with each other and with human beings.  Its high biodiversity as well as its capacity to provide goods and services sustain commercial activities such as fishing and tourism.

“Whales on the Matriz Square”
In 1892, while some restoration was carried out on the Matriz Church, a whale jaw thousands of years old was founded buried.  Why was this bone found on firm land? About 6000 years ago, the sea covered part of the present day national territory.  This is known as a “marine ingression.”  The advance and retreat of the sea along thousands of years allows us to find marine animals inland.  

“Our Dinosaurs”
Dinosaurs, as most reptiles, incubated their eggs in nests and their fossilized remains are relatively frequent in some parts of Uruguay.  The biggest and rounded eggs are attributed to herbivore dinosaurs and the smallest and oval ones to carnivore species.  A coprolite is a fossil excrement and there are different remains of this kind around the globe that are attributed to dinosaurs.  The one shown in this exhibit was found in Uruguay and is 70 million years old.  So far scientists are not certain to what kind of animal it belonged.. maybe a dinosaur, maybe another type of land animal. 

“Sailors of Many Arms”
Ammonites thrived in almost all seas.  This mollusk, with spiral shells, were relatives of the octopuses and squids.  They also had tentacles in the head.  Some ammonites would have lived up to 30 years ago and reached two meters in diameter.  They because extinct some 65 million years ago.  At present, only the nautilus has a protective shell and a relatively similar way of life. 

“Covered by the Sea”
Around this time the planet’s temperature increased.  Great amounts of ice melted and the sea level rose so much that it reached Bolivia’s present territory.  For this reason, marine animal fossils are found inland in the continent.

“Prairies Appear”
Big climate and ecosystems changes happened all over the world.  South America became a colder and dryer land.  Grasslands substituted for extensive jungle areas and herbivore mammals evolved like the giant ground sloth, glyptodonts, big rodents, and predators like terror birds.  These changes promoted the emergence of different plant species, which a long time later we learned to grow.  Climatic changes may undermine the survival of some species and benefit others.  This type of event has happened repeatedly in the history of the planet in a natural way.

“The End of an Era”
Different evidence suggests that a gigantic meteorite of a diameter of over 10 kilometers crashed into Earth in the present day zone of the Gulf of Mexico.  Immense tsunamis struck the coasts and an enormous dust cloud blocked the sunlight, which provoked the decrease of temperature and prevented the photosynthesis of many plans and phytoplankton.  This catastrophic event released a billion times the energy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs affecting all types of life.  It ended with ammonites, dinosaurs, big marine reptiles, and other groups that had dominated the planet for over 200 million years.  However, different types of animals and plans managed to survive, among them, a small group of hair bearing animals: the mammals. 

“The Tyrant of the Seas”
With teeth the size of a human hand, the giant shark “megalodon” (big tooth) was one of the largest predators of the time.  It is estimated that it reached a length of 16 meters and its gigantic jaws could be 3.5 meters tall and 2.3 meters wide.  Its bite, up to 10 times stronger than present day white sharks, allowed it to hunt dolphins, whales, and even other sharks.  With the extinction of the megalodon – 2 million years ago – white sharks could conquer all of the seas of the world. 

“When the Birds Reigned”
Terror birds were big predators of South American lowlands and could be 3 meters tall and weight up to 300 kilograms.  The biggest speies were unable to fly but could run as fast as 50km per hour.  Some species maybe used their strong legs to break dead animals’ bones to access the bone marrow.  The arrival of numers predator mammals from North America, through the Isthmus of Panama (3 million years ago) started the decrease and later the disappearance of these fascinating birds.  The claw shown corresponds to the inner finger of a terror brid.  With this finger the bird could hold its prey down to the floor and kill it with its enormous beak. The closet relative to terror birds would be the seriema.  It is a predator bird of our countryside and hills that also lives in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.  It runs and walks but rarely flies.   It keeps the clow of its inner finger in an up position while running to prevent it from wearing out against the floor.  Some raptor dinosaurs – like the Velociraptor – had a similar claw.

“The Biggest Rodent in the World"
At present the capybara is the biggest rodent.  It can weigh up to 90 kilograms and it is very common in Uruguay.  However, it does not compare to the Josephoartigasia which could have weighed over a ton.  It used its enormous incisors to feed as well as to defend itself from predators such as terror birds.  It could bite as strong as present day tigers.  The only fossils known of this animals were found in Uruguay.  The name of this giant rodent pays homage to historical leader Jose Artigas.  

“Ice Age Mammals”
Some 20,000 years ago, our land was very cold and there were some big size mammals.  Among them, there were the giant grounds sloths (of up to five tones), glyptodonts, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, horses, and many other extraordinary animals.  They disappeared about 8,000 years ago, and up until now scientists are not certain about the cause.  Humans arrived about 20,000 ago in South America from the north… Did these big mammals become extinct due to the actions of the first Native Americans?  Or was the extinction cause by climate change or other causes?