We were torn between what to do today: look for those
magnificent fossilised shark teeth that were there, just for the taking, or
give the Morro Copiapó a serious once-over. As we
had two cars, the problem was easily solved: Ian would take the Nissan with
Anne, Benjy, Bryan and Paul Sherville shark (teeth) hunting, while Cliff,
Finn, Angie and I took the Kia to take a look around the Morro Copiapó.
Looking for Megalodon teeth
Ian writes of their experiences:
'To provide a break from
full time Cactus hunting, and in the hope of finding a fantastic 5 inch long
razor sharp fossilised shark's tooth (as had been shown to us by the teenage
son of one of the Chilean Cactus society members earlier in the trip), car 2
set off westwards from Bahia Inglesa towards a bay that the hotel staff had
indicated was where the smaller teeth they had, on proud display in
reception, could have come from.
The road passed the turn off to Morro Copiapó that
we had taken earlier on the trip and we continued for nearly another 20 km
or so until the bay in question was found. Spurred on by Benjy's offer of
free beer for the rest of the trip if we could allow him to find such a
tooth the car party Ian, Paul S, Ann, Brian and Benjy (Finn had joined the
other car for the day) scoured the length of the beach enjoying the stunning
scenery but only finding a bed rich in oyster shells but no teeth. We
wondered if the beach was the right one as the hotel staff had been rather
vague so decided to continue further along the coast.
This again gave some stunning views and allowed
some photography of wading birds in lagoons behind the beach but the geology
was wrong. Retracing our tracks we passed the first bay searched and the
area then looked promising so Ian suggested a stop here (he is supposed to
be a geologist). The orangey-yellow sandy sediments that were present looked
very promising and it wasn't too long until the first shark and fish teeth
were found along with some other nice marine fossils including vertebrae,
bivalves and gastropods. The preservation was not ideal so a lot of the
teeth had the enamel preserved but had lost the dentine so they tended to
fall into 2 sections. When showing Paul Sherville what to look for, he
insisted what I had found was a bird's beak (he can be a real twit
sometimes!)
By working our way down towards the sea we were
able to find more teeth including better preserved ones in iron concreted
pockets. It was from such pockets that I am sure that the bigger teeth
purchased from the market at Caldera in the following days had been won. At
the coast we were also rewarded by spectacular cliffs of horizontally bedded
sediments that were very photogenic if one was bold enough to get near the
edge overhang to get the best angle! I believe that small shark and fish
teeth were found by all at this stop and though maybe not being as big as
the ones subsequently bought there was the immense satisfaction of finding
them ourselves. Another stop nearer Bahia Inglesa was made in an attempt to
find more fossil beds and although this was unsuccessful. Ian was only a few
metres from the car when he spotted what he thought was a discarded sweet
wrapper. On closer inspection it turned out to be a red Thelocephala
(odieri?) seed pod - all that was visible above the ground of the plants.
Further investigation by all car members identified other plants in the
otherwise barren gritty plateau so yet again even with another agenda we had
managed to find some more of our beloved cacti.'
More cacti on the Morro
We also drove down the track first taken on 8 June
(was it really that long ago?), but continued only a few kilometres further
before turning west towards the ocean. This brought us out to the south side
of the Morro - while Copiapoa prefer to grow on north facing slopes.
There was again a low cloud base - not good photography conditions, so at our
first stop (S187) we recorded the stop data, but as there were no
Copiapoa or Eriosyce to be seen, left without taking a single
picture.
The track was in places of dubious quality, so we
were glad to reach the beach for a break of being shaken around. We had passed
some clumps of Copiapoa marginata and had noted the place for a stop on
the way back, so that the beach stop was limited to taking pictures of
spectacular 3 m. (9ft) high waves (or were they higher?) crashing on the off
shore rocks. There is a small delay - the combination of human failings and
electronic wizardry in the camera - that resulted in the first frames always
capturing the wave after it had 'fizzled out'. Later images were better - who
cares how many you take when you can discard the failures and do not need to
worry about the cost and your remaining stock of slide film?
On the way back we stopped at the best location noted
earlier (S188) and found some good large clumps of C. marginata
but also a distressing amount of dead plants. Again, we needed to remind
ourselves that these may be the result of natural mortality over many years,
rather than of a sudden disaster striking this population.
A little further east, we found a tempting track
north that seemed to lead to a saddle between two higher parts of the Morro.
Eventually we agreed the track had become impassable, so left the car and
continued on foot (S189) finding many large clumps of C. marginata
as well as seedlings. While looking for seedlings, one of us commented
that there should be 'Thelocephala' here as well, and once we focussed
our search on these small geophytes, it did not take too long before Angie ('I
can never find those small things') was the first to find one. Others soon
followed and as usual, the largest of these miniatures was found about a meter
from where we had left the car.
Satisfied with our day, we went back to the hotel to
discover how the other car party had enjoyed the day.
