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trexmuseumT Rex Expeditions

For those who are bored with the ordinary and want the thrill of something very different, love dinosaurs, reptiles, outdoors, mysteries, ancient civilizations, natural history, paleontology, herpetology, or any of the above… We may have the answer. The T Rex Museum Expeditions are like nothing else out there. We have been going on expeditions to way out places for 40 plus years, having a great time doing it, made many noteworthy discoveries, and finally decided to expand the club and let others enjoy what we have.

We keep our expeditions intentionally small, usually no more than 10 people so that the experience is more personal. We have real experts along or at the destination, many with advanced degrees and intimate experience of the subject and site. Check out what we are offering and make sure you read all the fine print designed to protect you and feel free to call or contact us for more information.

November, 2013 Expedition to Peru:

There has been a great deal of controversy recently by the claim many have made, that there is a great deal of proof that dinosaurs and humans had some contact in the not so distant past. The Back-story will cover that aspect in more detail. But over the last couple of decades more and more Art has turned up in numerous countries around the world that show accurate representations of dinosaurs, sometimes interacting with humans. Peru seems to be the center of this controversy.

Of course we all pooh-pooh the idea. But more and more evidence has accumulated until there are 100,000+ anomalies in this arena. This seems to be way too much for a hoax, or to sell trinkets to stupid tourists or misinterpreting this cultural art. Many museums around the world and especially in Peru have some of this art and we will take our own look at it.

There are figurines, tapestries, rock carvings, rock paintings, cave paintings, pictographs, petroglyphs, jewelry, masks, carvings in stone, and more. Modern science calls them absurd and claims they have to be fakes because humans and dinosaurs could never have been together. They have not even seriously looked at the authenticity of these findings. Some of it has a good claim to, at the very least, come from an authenticated ancient time. Art from their respective cultures dating to almost 5,000 years ago starting with the Norte Chico Civilization in Northern Peru. And while some have been shown to be crude fakes, others are absolutely authentic to their periods.

This has to raise the question; how could any of our ancestors know what dinosaurs looked like since they were not discovered by modern man until the 1800's. Plus we didn't really have a good understanding of what they looked like until well into the 20th Century. The Chinese, of course, beg to differ as they have been drawing and writing about dragons for several thousand years. Could there still be dinosaur about?

There have been literally thousands of claimed sightings throughout the world every year for many decades now. Most are simply ignored by the Western Press, but googling the subject shows quite a lot are still making the pages of some publications at least. The Amazon Basin has been a real hotbed of reports of giant snakes, dinosaurs, and strange reptilian creatures over the last several years.

The T Rex Museum & Expeditions is a science based institution and we are not going to try and prove or disprove any of the above. We simply want to look at the facts and follow them and not the dogma that is clearly being espoused by various sides on the issue. This expedition to mysterious Peru will start by looking at museum collections, private collections, and actual in the field findings that do appear to show dinosaurs and humans living in a true Dinotopia setting with these Saurians. See more under The Back-story below if you wish.

Itinerary

You will fly in to Lima Peru and meet us there, either at the hotel or airport depending on schedules. We will take in the fine museums that show some of this controversial ancient art and have dinner in a very interesting restaurant. We will try and get educated enough to have the knowledge of what the Peruvian consider authentic ancient art pieces and we will look at the fine objects that do display dinosaurs as part of the exhibits. This will give us a good baseline data base for what we will see later on our explorations into the ancient and mysterious Amazon.

The next day we will head out via airplane to Chiclayo and by private jeeps to Jaen. For the next two days we will explore an area that has had both t and ancient art in caves and on rocks that is unbelievable, until you see it. Someone in the past recorded humans hunting dinosaurs and when you see the amazing rain forest jungles, rivers, and lakes you will think you are in Jurassic park. No predicting what can happen here but hope we all get excited by what we find and observe. You will need to hike in (moderate degree of difficulty) and you will really get an experience here.

From here we will fly back to on day four to Lima and next day take in more museums, restaurants, and maybe a little shopping with your free time and possibly a surprise on day five or six. Day seven you will fly back home with wonderful memories of exotic people, places, and wildlife. We will take care of most of your meals, all the transportation, guides, (except tips), and lodging. This is a real expeditions with bouts of comfort and some more rustic times so a good sense of adventure is needed since we will be greatly pushing the frontiers of Science, reality, and human understandings here.

The Back-story

Peru is just recently waking up to the fact there were dinosaurs walking these lands.

There exist two prime locations for those interested in paleontology; The Bagua area , in the department of Amazonas, and in the deserts of the southern region of Ica, Peru. The town of Bagua in the region of Amazonas is one of the richest places in Peruvian paleontology. It is here that the 67 million year old femur of a Titanosaur was discovered that is now exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in Lima. The titanosaurs were the last great group of sauropods before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, about 90–65 million years ago and were the dominant herbivores of their time. The fossil evidence suggests they replaced the other sauropods, like the diplodocids and the brachiosaurids, which died out between the late Jurassic and the mid-Cretaceous Periods.

What matters here to us is that pictures found in many burial tombs showed these large sauropods as having rosettes and armored plates on their sides. Scientists originally used this wrong thinking idea to discredit the drawings and stone art. But according to Wiki From skin impressions found with the fossils, it has been determined that the skin of many titanosaur species was armored with a small mosaic of small, bead-like scales around a larger scale, or rosette.[1] One species, Saltasaurus, has even been discovered with bony plates, like the ankylosaurs. Studies published in 2011 also indicate that titanosaurs such as Rapetosaurus (on which the examinations were preformed), may have used the osteoderms common in the various genera for storing minerals during harsh changes in climate, such as drought.[2][3. This was not understood until very recently.

In the southern Lima district of Chorrillos the bones of a plesiosaur were found. Rudolfo Salas, with a team of French and US colleagues, has proven wrong the myth in paleontology that the rainforest is not somewhere you would ever find fossils – mostly due to the high humidity and movement of the soils from growing tree roots. In a study in 2005 his team discovered fossils of huge reptiles from the time of the dinosaurs, and much later in time giant mammals from periods that followed, all around the jungle city of Iquitos. As a result of these studies we are now aware of new species such as the peculiar cocodrilo sebecus, a reptile similar to crocodiles but better suited to walking on land with longer downward pointing legs that allowed it to chase prey. It lived only 12 million years ago, so maybe it is still around? And at about the same time Mastodons and Sabre Tooth Cats also roamed the land. Peru is an untapped area when it comes to fossils.

So now we have established that dinosaurs and other amazing creatures did once exist here. But exactly when did the last one pass away. When it comes to dinosaurs, the scientific correct answer is about 65 million years ago. But locals beg to differ. Plenty of evidence shows that civilizations in this area dating to 9,000 BCE were aware of what clearly looks to be dinosaurian and it was left throughout their art.

The ruins of Caral are located in an arid region, but with nearby rivers, some 14 miles from the coast and 120 miles north of Peru's modern capital city of Lima. The Norte Chico people were apparently very peaceful people, no evidence exists of weapons or defensive fortifications, and no evidence exists of Human sacrifice. Instead they claimed they lived with their gods and we have a clear picture of one of these gods thanks to Ruth Shady Solís, a Peruvian anthropologist and archeologist. She started digging with a team in 1994 and found a gourd with a picture of one of these gods, clearly a sauropod dinosaur, and dated the find to between 2627 B.C. and 2020 B.C.

Next came a succession of civilizations, often overlapping in time but not space. They were the Paracas, Vicus, Nazca, Wari, Tiwwanaku, Ica, Chimu, and Inca's. Theory were all different civilizations but in total stretched back to nearly 10,000 B.C. And they had one thing clearly in common; They did a great deal of what we call Art, and displayed dinosaurs and dinosaurs and humans interacting. Bet you didn't read that in a history book. It is a fact and one easily verified with a visit to Peru. Of course they could actually be a 12,000 year old hoax perpetuated by civilization after civilization for that entire period. Anything is possible.

The most noted and most hotly contested Art during this period is called The Ica Stones. It is a long story but basically until recently it was never really investigated by Western science and relegated to Fakery since everyone knows dinosaur and humans are separated by a large gulf in time. But recently more and more scrutiny has been applied to these stones showing humans and dinosaurs, open heart surgery and other advanced medicines, hot air balloons and gliders, and much more.

Any investigation into the authenticity of the stones should begin with the facts. The history and scientific analysis of the stones should be considered before tossing them aside as tourist trinkets.

The first mention of the stones is from a Spanish priest journeying to the region of Ica in 1535. Father Simon, a Jesuit missionary, accompanied Pizarro along the Peruvian coast and recorded his amazement upon viewing the stones. In 1562, Spanish explorers sent some of the stones back to Spain. The Indian chronicler, Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Llamqui, wrote at the time of the Inca Pachacutec that many carved stones were found in the kingdom of Chincha in Chimchayunga which was called Manco. Chinchayunga was known as the low country of the central coast of Peru where Ica is located today.

- Dr. Dennis Swift

After official government tests, Carraza declared in 1974:
It seems certain to me . . .that they (what) are a message from a very ancient people whose memory has been lost to history. They were engraved several thousand years ago. They've been known in Peru for a long time and my museum has more than four hundred of them.

- Colonel Omar Chioino Carraza, who was the Director of the Peruvian Aeronautical Museum, wrote this after Peruvian government tests were completed. The stones are covered with a fine patina of natural oxidation which also covers the grooves, by which age should be able to be deduced . . .

- Geologist Eric Wolf Maurico Hochshild Mining Company
Dr. Blumrich, a prominent NASA scientist who developed the design on the Saturn V missile and worked on the design of the Skylab wrote that the stones studied by him, and according to laboratory tests, were authentic and there is no doubt in my mind about the authenticity of these pictures. I have examined the rocks at 30 and 60 magnification in a stereo microscope, and found no obvious grinding or polishing marks . . .

- Ryan Drum, an American biologist who brought back two stones to America and did microscopic studies of them. …in the photographs of stone carvings depicting heart surgery, the detail is clear seven blood vessels coming from the heart are faithfully copied. The whole thing looks like a cardiac operation, and the surgeons seem to be using techniques that fit with our modern knowledge.

- Dr. E. Stanton Maxey, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
I believe it to be correct to state that no primitive or ancient race of people anywhere in the world had developed such a field of surgical knowledge as had the Pre-Columbian Peruvians. Their surgical attempts are truly amazing and include amputations, excisions, trephinning, bandaging, bone transplants, cauterization and other less evident procedures.

- R.L. Moodie, the great paleopathologist, summing up his study of ancient Peruvian surgery. The microscopic analysis of the Cabrera rock or Ica Stone revealed that it had a fine patina covering the grooves and incisions of the stone. There was dirt and sand embedded in the crevices of the stone including some of the incisions. The natural oxidation had slightly colored the incisions so that they did not have a bright-white look. No evidence of modern tool usage or minute metal particles were found. The laboratory conclusion was that the engravings on the stone were not recent but of some age. That age could not be determined because patina and natural oxidation cannot be accurately measured. The patina is not an absolute proof of age, but it would be impossible to find patina on a recently engraved stone.

-Analysis by Mason Optical, Inc.
Many (artifacts) in dry western country show little or no patina after seven or eight hundred years.

- F.G. Hawley, chemist
Bottom line is that while there is much skepticism, and there should be, there is also a good bit of real science that says we need to look into this better. We will! And there is much more.

*The locals have reported seeing a large creature in the many lakes and rivers in this Amazon rain forest. When shown pictures 5 different people all picked a titanosaurid Sauropod. Hmmm, wouldn't it be cool if…???

 

Expedition to Mexico

There is an area in Mexico that has a long history of a love affair with dinosaurs. Acámbaro is a city and municipality in the southeastern corner of the Mexican state of Guanajuato, on the banks of the Lerma River, and the oldest of the 46 municipalities of Guanajuato. According to Wiki: The name Acámbaro is derived from a Native American term meaning place of magueyes. The first inhabitants of this area belonged to the Chupicuaro culture, one of the oldest in Mesoamerica. Their origin is estimated to be from at least 1200 B.C. In this region there have been valuable archaeological finds of ceramic of incredible beauty that are now exhibited at the local museums.

The real story for us here is twofold. One is the Figurines that have be attributed to the Chupicuaro civilization. The second is that there are over 50 reports from the last 40 years about sauropod like creatures living in the area. We always attribute it to superstitious, unsophisticated, and undereducated third world peoples. But what if they are just reporting what they have and are seeing? Can we totally ignore the possibilities, especially when it is just a few hours by air to this area?

Here is some more Wiki: Acámbaro has been notable as a point of controversy in the field of archeology as the source of the Acámbaro figures, a collection of about 32,000 clay figurines discovered by German archaeologist Waldemar Julsrud in 1944 near the city's most prominent landmark, the Cerro del Toro (Bull Hill). The figures are claimed to be hoaxes, as some of the figurines resembled dinosaurs (thus implying that man and dinosaurs co-existed) and their discovery is used by some as evidence to support a creationism point of view. Many of the Julsrud finds are now on display at the Museo Waldemar Julsrud.

Less controversial archeological artifacts are on display at the Museo de Chupícuaro (also known as Museo Fray Bernardo Padilla), documenting the history of the Chupícuaro people, and the Museo Local de Acámbaro, which has over 4000 relics relating to local Mesoamerican cultures. The Museo Local also contains paintings related to colonial Mexico and the war of independence.

Itinerary:

Day One: You will fly in to Mexico City and then take a short airplane hop to Captain Rogelio Castillo National Airport in Celeya where we will pick you up and drive you the short distance to Acombaro, Mexico. Here the adventure starts.

Day Two: We will start our exploration of the region by going to a couple of museums that have dinosaur figurines and check out a couple other places that have evidence of same.

Day Three: We will now take a drive out into the country and see where some of these figurines were found and excavated.

Day Four: Now we will explore Bull Mountain and Goat Mountain area where there is a possibility of finding the right habitat for dinosaur remains.

Day Five: Going a little farther out we will look at spots locals have said they saw monsters in the past.

Day Six: is an open day to use depending on what information we have found and we will go where it seems we may get more or confirmations.

Day Seven: Back to Celeya and onto a flight to Mexico City and from there back to your homes.

The Back-story

While the whole idea is preposterous, one of sciences main axioms is to theorize and then go out and prove or disprove the theory. Unfortunately, in this case the story has already been dismissed as a hoax since we KNOW dinosaurs could not have ever been seen by humans and so no need to even look at this. We beg to differ. We believe that any theory, no matter how strange, deserves to be looked at for the facts. It wasn't that long ago when we all KNEW that the earth was the center or the Universe, and that it was flat. Experience teaches that we should not ignore anything, but rather test it for factuality.

An excellent and unbiased look at this subject can be gained by reading Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently? by Charles H. Hapgood. Hint, he isn't a creationist and does in fact have a good educational pedigree from Harvard.

Here is more Wiki: Professor Hapgood and Erle Stanley Gardner (Criminal investigator and author of Perry Mason books) thought the collection of clay artifacts known as the Acambaro figurines were created thousands of years ago (rather than the hoax date of late 1940's) . The date estimate as well as the notion the artifacts were made by some undiscovered culture was rejected by most archeologists and paleontologists.[11] The figurines, which most archaeologists dismiss as an elaborate hoax, depict oddities such as dinosaurs coexisting with men and horned humans. In the introduction to later editions of Hapgood's 1973 book, Mystery in Acambaro, David Hatcher Childress wrote that Hapgood and Gardner thought the figurines were genuine and were evidence that orthodox understandings of dinosaur extinction were wrong.[1][12].

So don't believe that everyone thinks these figures are hoaxes as this is a healthy controversy that should be more fully explored, and we plan to do that by looking at the Art, the Context, and the History. History through Art makes more sense then just blanket refusal to even look cause we already know the answer!

There are some other interesting aspect to this mystery as well. Some very well know people highly respected in Mexico have testified that they have either seen or seen evidence of recent dinosaur activity in remote areas nearby. One is Carlos Perea who is the former Director of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City (the largest in the world) and the Director of the Acombaro District who actually saw a rib bone that was non fossilized and later identified (by photograph) by a major American University as definitely sauropod.

This rib and most of a 30 foot long dinosaur was discovered by Roman Pena Chan (Director for 20 years of the National Museum) in a cave and recorded his testimony of the find on tape. The photograph has been donated to an Institution in Mexico that admits its existence, but will not make it available for closer scrutiny. I wonder why? Remember, we are talking unfossilized bone here. It would be absolutely scientific evidence of recent dinosaur activity if we could find another in this area.

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