After I posted that last blog entry, I decided I should provide a little more information. What’s the point of the expedition that Posada-Swafford is participating in. In part, at least, the scientists are hunting fossils. Posada-Swafford writes in an e-mail:
We will arrive in Punta Arenas tomorrow and on the 23rd will sail to
Seymour Island to install the paleontologists’ camp, will hang out with
them (hopefully walking around in search on dinos and mammals) and sail
to Palmer Station 2 days later.The paleontologists are Ross MacPhee of the Natural History Museum in
New York and Matt Lamanna, a long time friend (what a coincidence!) from
Carnegie, an expert in Patagonic dinos. They are going to look for
clues of mammals and hopefully a dino from a specific geologic era that
will give evidence of a land bridge between South America and Antarctica and Australia. Very cool. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if
we found something new?