User:Abyssal/Prehistory of North America

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The Prehistory of North America Portal

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Selected article on prehistoric North America

The Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was a species of mammoth that inhabited North America as far north as the northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. The Columbian mammoth evolved from the steppe mammoth, which entered North America from Asia about 1.5 million years ago. The pygmy mammoths of the Channel Islands of California evolved from Columbian mammoths. The closest extant relative of the Columbian and other mammoths is the Asian elephant.

Reaching 4 m (13 ft) at the shoulders and 8–10 tonnes (18,000–22,000 lb) in weight, the Columbian mammoth was one of the largest species of mammoth. It most likely used its tusks and trunk like modern elephants—for manipulating objects, fighting, and foraging. The Columbian mammoth preferred open areas, such as parkland landscapes, and fed on sedge, grass, and other plants. Genetic evidence suggests that they interbred with wooly mammoths.

Before they went extinct, Columbian mammoths coexisted in North America for a few thousand years with Palaeoamericans, who hunted them for food, used their bones for making tools, and depicted them in ancient art. Columbian mammoth remains have been found in association with Clovis culture artefacts; these remains may have stemmed either from hunting or from scavenging. The Columbian mammoth disappeared at the end of the Pleistocene around 11,000 years ago, most likely as a result of habitat loss caused by climate change, hunting by humans, or a combination of both. (see more...)

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Selected article on the prehistory of North America in science, culture and economics

Edward Drinker Cope (left) and Othniel Charles Marsh (right).

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology (2005) is a graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by the company Big Time Attic. The book tells a slightly fictionalized account of the Bone Wars, a period of intense excavation, speculation, and rivalry which led to a greater understanding of dinosaurs in the western United States. This novel is the first semi-fictional work written by Ottaviani; previously, he had taken no creative license with the characters he depicted, portraying them strictly according to historical sources.

Bone Sharps follows the two scientists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh as they engage in an intense rivalry for prestige. Ottaviani has Cope and Marsh interact and meet many important figures of the Gilded Age, from P. T. Barnum to U.S. Grant, as the two scientists pursue their hotheaded and sometimes illegal acquisitions of fossils. Unlike in his previous books, "the scientists are the bad guys this time". Upon release, the novel received praise from critics for its exceptional historical content, although some reviewers wished more fiction had been woven into the story. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that the Maya city of La Blanca in northern Guatemala features an unusually well built palace complex for such a small city?
... that the extinct maple Acer dettermani is only known from the flank of a volcano?
... that the Triassic reptile Vancleavea, which is specialized to live in the water, differs greatly from all other early archosauriforms?
... that the extinct legume Hymenaea allendis is the second Hymenaea species described from Mexican amber?
... that fossils of the extinct bivalve family Praenuculidae have been found on every continent except Antarctica?

... that the extinct ant Anochetus intermedius had mandibles longer than its head?
... that the Late Triassic archosauromorph Uatchitodon is the earliest known venomous reptile?
... that the Miocene ant Acropyga glaesaria is one of the oldest examples of trophobiosis?
... that the extinct snakefly Agulla protomaculata is the only snakefly described from the Green River Formation?
... that with a 20 million year fossil record, Acer chaneyi has the longest fossil record of the Western North American maples?