1st April 2008 Tuesday:  On the same day we went to Torre Del Paine, we also went to the Cueva del Milodón Natural Monument which is situated along the flanks of the Cerro Benitez mountains. Now, it’s not the cave that’s “special”, but the”Milodon” thingy. In 1896, someone discovered bits of skin, bones and other fragments of something inside this cave. Apparently, these remains are dated from an era earlier than 10,000 BC, and are thought to be parts of the extinct giant ground sloth, which they called the Milodon (Genus Mylodon).

We have to admit we are very skeptical about this whole Milodon thing. Our guide said that the skin was quite well-preserved.Is it a fossil, we asked him. He said, ‘No, it is the real skin.’ Real skin found inside a cave that isn’t covered in snow or ice all year around? Seemed unusual. What’s more, it’s the only kind that is found in the whole world. The only one, a unique species. We never got the chance to see any of those fragments for some have been sent to the UK for study and others in a musuem somewhere in Chile.

 

A burning question: How did they come to the conclusion of it belonging to a giant sloth? We noticed a lot of gaps in this theory. Another thing: We had to pay entry fees to visit the small empty cave. Yes, it was where humans possibly inhabited 8000 years ago as some prehistoric tools were found there and so on, but the statue of the Milodon doesn’t justify the entry fees.

 The landscape around

 Limestone stalacites hanging from the roof of the cave

 A statue of the “Milodon”

 

Might as well take a photo with the “Milodon”

The caves are generally formed of limestone conglomerate, and are surrounded by moderately dense Nothofagus forest

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