Dinosaur's Nest Fossils Found by the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Seventy million years ago a 25 foot long dinosaur chewed, savoring a meal in the jagged mountains and valleys along the winding rivers of the southern tip of South America.

It was a magaraptor dinosaur with sickle like claws.

In the distance, a 10 foot tall, 7 foot long, bird like creature covered with feathers swallowed another bite of her dinner. Her eyes were on her baby dinosaur chicks climbing over the rocks and on the eggs that would hatch soon.

Her mate nudged her and spoke with squawking trumpets of sound and gestures. She understood his language.

They lived in an area with a wide variety of animals and plants. The dinosaurs did not know that someday in millions of years, this would be a barren, rocky area.

While they ate the couple discussed their young family and the rest of the eggs that would hatch. Their language of dinosaur bird-like sounds was complex. They discussed plans to grow their household size with more dinosaur chicks and to make their nest bigger.

The mama dinosaur did not know that an asteroid striking somewhere in a place to be called Mexico someday would send a cloud of debris around the planet.

The asteroid would cause a cloud of small, glassy blobs to rain down on earth. The dust and particles would create a harsh environment for living things.

The asteroid impact would cause a heat wave locally, a shock wave over the seas, ocean waves from tsunamis, winds of over 600 miles per hour, a global dimming of light from the sun, and icy temperatures.

This would cause the end for the times of the dinosaurs and most of the other life.

But another chapter in time would begin.

Millions of years later, in the 1800s, a clipper ship called Destiny’s Dreams would sail along a water passage through the barren mountains and glaciers of Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America.

It would anchor in a mountain bay on the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean near a glacier.

When the explorers went ashore to explore the glacier, they would find themselves spending the night in what appeared to be a nest of ancient dinosaur eggs, millions of years old.

Later one of the members of the exploration expedition would describe the voyage and discoveries in a journal about the voyages of the Destiny’s Dreams.

******

The ship known as Destiny's Dreams was sailing through the narrow waterways between the mountains of Patagonia at the southern tip of South America. It started in the Atlantic ocean on the east coast of South America at Buenos Aires and was heading to the Pacific ocean and the west coast.

They had several science students on board from the school in Buenos Aires who were part of an expedition to explore the area.

“There it is, on the left. The glacier.” First Mate Adelberto hollered down from high up in the square sails of the ship.

“Good.” Captain Alfonse’s voice carried over the breezes, splashing waves, and creaking of the wooden ship.

Isabella, Adelberto’s wife came onto the deck and called up to Adelberto.

“We’ve got a hot dinner meal ready, dear. Come on down.”

The narrow, mountainous shore of the passage was wearing its Autumn cloak of thick fogs and clouds tangled in the mountaintops.

The waters of the passage were choppy with medium waves. They glinted in the sunlight like silver under the grey sky.

The passengers and crew flowed into the dining room and sat down at the varnished wood tables. Huge kettles of hot stew sat on the tables, along with plates of fresh baked breads. People held onto their bowls to steady them in the rolling ship.

A blue glow shined at the storyteller’s table. She sat next to a large lantern. A flame gleamed on the wick. The light passed through the lantern’s blue glass and etched designs, sending wavering patterns of light and shadows around the dining room.

One of the ship’s musicians plucked the strings of an instrument that sent music like the ocean speaking to them with voices of the winds.

Ana, the storyteller, stood and opened her arms wide.

“Welcome everyone. Gather round.”

The two students, Elena and Luis, from the school in Buenos Aires, moved their chairs closer.

“Sometimes these stories of legends have clues about ancient history.” Elena’s whisper to Luis was excited.

“Beyond the great beyond. Farther than time out of mind. Older than the stars. Creatures the size of this ship roamed the mountains of Patagonia.”

Ana, the storyteller turned up the lantern light for a moment, then dropped it to a dim indigo. Murmurs stopped and the room was still and quiet.

“There were ancient creatures and plants that are gone today.”

“My ancestors, and their ancestors told the story of 10 foot tall, bird-like dinosaurs that were 7 feet long. They laid eggs and built nests in hollowed out dips in the ground.”

Everyone leaned forward. Ana’s voice grew softer. They strained to hear.

She paused. Ana knew how to create drama. Her eyes met the eyes of the listeners.

It was quiet. They wondered when she would speak again. What was happening?

There was an ear splitting squawk and screech. Everyone jumped.

People clapped their hands to their ears.

A shape flew across the room over their heads.

Then they relaxed.

“It is Foresta. The captain’s parrot,” someone said.

Captain Alfonse was entering the room and Foresta flew back to land on his arm.

Ana’s voice rose and fell with rhythms like ocean waves. Her voice was musical and the listeners entered a world of ancient dinosaurs while they heard the story.

Adelberto and Isabella went back onto the deck when the story was over.

“Easy.” Adelberto spoke to the other sailors helping him.

“Now release the windlass. The chain should flow. Good. Now the anchor is going down to the bottom.”

“That anchor is 11 feet long and weighs 2 tons. Later, we will need to get people to push the spokes of the windlass by walking in a circle around it grasping the spokes to slowly wind the chain back up.”

A quarter mile off shore the Destiny’s Dreams rested. Her sails were reefed so they were wrapped around their wooden booms until they were unfurled again to sail onward.

Captain Alfonse put Foresta the parrot into the parrot’s comfy cage in the cabin. He brought his rescued monkey, Rio, out to ride on his shoulder.

Then Alfonse, Rio, First Mate Adelberto and his wife Isabella, the two students Elena and Luis, and a group of sailors use the surfboat to go into the shore.

The wind was quieting down, and the sailors easily rowed the boat one quarter mile across smooth water.

The steep, barren mountains of the glacier range went almost straight up to the sky. The icy masses were in the valleys between the mountains.

During summer months some of the ice melted at the edges of glaciers.

“Pull the surfboat up over here.” Alfonse and Adelberto helped the passengers climb out over the railing. Then Alfonse picked up a backpack of supplies.

Rio, Alfonse’s monkey, was still riding on Alfonse’s shoulders and climbing on his arms. The captain was used to it. He liked having his animal companion with him.

Rio pulled his lips back in a wide monkey smile, flipped his long tail back and forth, and wrapped his human like, long, thin fingers around Alfonse’s arm.

The group set off. Then Rio hopped to the ground and scampered off, climbing over the rocks with agility. He used his long tail to balance. Rio was happy to be playing and seeing new things.

The group rounded a corner of rocks and saw Rio running back to them with a long, pale object in his fingers.

“It looks like a bone.” Captain Alfonse, Elena, and Luis examined the object.

The monkey took off running again and the group climbed over the rocks after him.

“I can’t see the ship anymore.” Elena’s voice was worried, but the others were too busy to hear her.

The group went around a pile of boulders. Then they stood silently. Their faces froze with eyes wide and mouths open.

Pale shapes were scattered at the edge of the melting glacier.

Then everyone started talking.

“Those look like bones.”

“Is that a giant jawbone with teeth?”

“Monsters.”

“Beasts.”

“Giant eggs.”

“Dinosaur eggs.”

“A dinosaur bird.”

"Fossils."

"What made the dinosaurs go away?"

"I don't know."

The light was beginning to fade and the temperature was dropping. But the people were too excited to notice.

Fingers of cold night air crept along the ground of the Patagonia mountains, the valleys, and the icy waters of the passage.

Elena’s voice carried over the group.

“Where is the ship?”

Then other people spoke.

“It is getting dark.”

“Where are we?”

Captain Alfonse knew he made a mistake. They should have turned back sooner.

“We may need to camp here overnight. I have some food and water, and the flint to start a fire.”

“Our compass shows the direction back to the ship. But it will be too dark to climb over the rocks to go back now.”

Elena and Luis looked at each other.

Captain Alfonse continued. “Everyone, gather mosses and driftwood. We will build a small fire.”

He pointed to the round rock shapes that looked like dinosaur eggs.

“We are going to camp in a dinosaur’s nest tonight,” Luis whispered to Elena. His eyes sparkled.

The sky darkened and the ground became shadowed. Clouds blocked the light from the moon and stars. The night was like black velvet.

In the bowl-like dip in the ground, nestled around the dinosaur eggs, the group huddled around the flame of a tiny fire made of mosses and driftwood.

The darkness blanketed the land.

“We will take turns watching the fire. Keep it going. Even this small flame casts some heat.” Alfonse tried to keep his tone reassuring.

Like baby dinosaur chicks in their nest, the people from the Destiny’s Dreams curled up together against the ancient eggs.

Elena and Luis kept their enthusiasm hidden because the others did not seem to share their excitement.

“I will never forget this night,” whispered Elena to Luis. He felt a warmth spreading inside of him. She was his friend from school. But now he began to think their relationship might become something more after this shared experience.

The night hours passed and the coldest temperatures yet in the dawn made everyone huddle even closer together.

The tiny fire was still burning.

Pale morning light began to grow.

“Dried fish, hardtack biscuits, and water for everyone.” Captain Alfonse was glad he packed the supplies in his backpack before they left the ship.

Luis climbed onto a higher rock and stood memorizing everything he saw.

“Later I can draw this in my sketchbook,” he said to Elena.

The light became brighter and the group followed Alfonse and Rio back along the coast to the ship.

Finally, they saw the three masts silhouetted against the grey sky and fog. Then the surfboat came into view, waiting for them on the rocks.

The tired explorers retired to their cabins on the ship to rest and get warm when they returned.

Later in the dining room, over a hot meal, they told their story.

“We slept in a nest of dinosaur eggs.”

When they said this the other passengers looked at them with raised eyebrows, wondering.

Elena said, “Come with us. We will show you.”

The next day they set off with food, blankets, water, and supplies.

They left the surfboat on the rocky shore again and began the trek through the foggy mountains next to the cold waves of the water passage.

The clouds overhead seemed to come down to rest on top of them and make the fog so thick they could not see.

They never found the nest of dinosaur eggs again. The search went on for a week.

The bones, fossils, and eggs of the feathered, bird-like, mama dinosaur who was 10 feet tall and 7 feet long, remained hidden in the mists of time and the fogs of the Patagonia Passage.