The Dust Bowl Dino Tracks
February 12-18, 2004, NOW Magazine
by June Chua
Sucre, Bolivia - I am perched on the back of a flatbed truck converted into a people carrier with wooden benches and extra high siding. It is painted bright blue, green, yellow and red with cartoon dinosaurs and the words "Dino Truck" emblazoned on its back. There are six of us: two French men, an Israeli couple and me and my boyfriend.
We are sitting, sheepishly, in this garish truck having paid 25 bolivianos ($3.50) each for a two-hour tour to see the world's largest collection of dinosaur tracks. The tracks are a 20-minute ride from the center of Sucre, Bolivia's judicial capital. It's a white, wedding-cake colonial city with cobbled-stone paths and a large central market. The truck leaves three times daily from the cathedral in the main square. It's an easy tourist site to reach in a country where getting from point A to point B takes anywhere from a day to a week. We're headed to Cal Orck'o, the limestone quarry of the National Cement Factory.
The site was discovered in 1994 after workers blasted through the cliff and uncovered a treasure trove of tracks. Arriving at the dust bowl, we see a myriad of pockmarks on the cliff side in the distance. The tracks - of herbivores and carnivores - are almost 70-million years old, from the Cretaceous era and the largest are a metre long. Our guide, Daniel, an obvious dino-phile, is enthusiastic about history. His avid storytelling brings the imprints to life. As we walk near the cliff side, I start to feel like an ant. The grey rock face stands 100 metres at about a 70-degree angle. We discover the longest stretch of tracks goes for half a kilometre and was probably laid down by a baby Tyrannosaurus rex dubbed Johnny Walker. Other species identified include the three-horned triceratops, the carnivorous alosaurus and the titannosaurus. I place my hand next to one of the largest footprints; it's barely the size of a dinosaur toenail.
Paleontologists estimate there are 5,000 impressions on the rock face from 150 different animals.
Paleontologists estimate there are 5,000 impressions on the rock face from 150 different animals. Daniel stops in front of two tracks that run into each other.
"Here is something very interesting. We have carnivore tracks going up and herbivore prints headed straight into it from the side. But, where do the herbivore tracks go?" We can see no more herbivore tracks after it meets the carnivore ones.
"Well, the carnivore probably did this: Arrrgh!" Daniel mimes a mouth clamp onto a neck. "This is the only place on the whole site carnivore meets - or eats - herbivore." As we head back to the truck, we hear the roar of cement factory trucks. I ask about the closeness of the footprints to the factory. Daniel says Cal Orck'o is an UNESCO site but that's just paper protection - there is nothing to prevent the quarry next door from continuing to blast into the rock face.
"They say that it will help uncover even more tracks. They don't understand. This site is in danger." There's talk of establishing a Cretaceous park to protect the tracks, of preserving them with silicon injections into the rock face or moving them to an exhibition center. But little is being done. Daniel says this is his last week as a guide. He's moving on to a better paying job, leaving his precious tracks behind.
My boyfriend and I are the last to be dropped off. I hand Daniel a tip. He expresses surprise. I tell him how much we appreciated his guiding today. The dinos and Daniel have left a deep impression.
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