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GeorgiaBeforePeople 
September 15, 2010 at 1:58 pm |
The original purpose of this blog was to promote my book–Georgia Before People: Land of the saber-tooths, mastodons, vampire bats, and other strange creatures. Available at http://www.lulu.com and http://www.amazon.com.
I am no longer promoting that book because some of the information is out of date.
Although I will occasionally still publish a natural history article, I am using this blog to promote my memoirs–The Living Crutch: My Life as a Longtime Caregiver. I’m going to release excerpts from it on a weekly basis. I hope a literary agent discovers it and decides to help get it published by a real publisher because I am no longer self-publishing books.
August 5, 2012 at 1:18 am |
We have a Kettle Creek Battlefield Association, Inc. which is interested in developing the KC site for educational purposes. It would be interesting to know you better.
August 5, 2012 at 12:22 pm
What do you need to know?
December 11, 2012 at 12:22 am |
How can I contact you about obtaining a signed copy of your book? Your email address is pretty well-hidden. (And probably for good reason.)
December 11, 2012 at 12:34 pm
If you want a signed copy of my book, just send a check for $20 to the following address:
Mark Gelbart
1144 Piney Grove Road
Augusta, Georgia 30906
The price includes shipping.
February 2, 2017 at 8:05 pm |
I think you mean before European people came and ruined it. Much of what you share is Georgia before Europeans. Indigenous peoples have lived here since time immemorial. We did not ruin our ancestral homelands.
February 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm
I do mean before all people came to North America. Native Americans wiped out 70% of the large mammal species that lived here, thousands of years before Europeans arrived. You did ruin your ancestral homelands.
December 27, 2011 at 3:10 pm |
I found your blog, and I’m interested in knowing what your professional background is. Have you studied ecology, zoology, palaeontology, or any of the fields you discuss? Just curious. I can’t find a way to send you a private email…no contact info. Maybe I’m missing something.
December 27, 2011 at 4:12 pm |
I have no professional background.
From reading my blog do you think I’ve ever studied ecology, zoology, etc.?
January 3, 2012 at 4:15 am |
Mark,
Your blog has some interesting facts regarding fossils found in Georgia (U.S.) caves. Would you be so kind as to email me regarding same? Thank you.
georgiacaver
January 3, 2012 at 2:42 pm |
Here’s some of the links to my articles about fossils found in Georgia Caves.
January 3, 2012 at 2:45 pm
And another link.
https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/tag/yarbrough-cave/
January 4, 2012 at 12:27 pm
Thank you! Interesting articles. I edit a Bulletin that publishes similar articles. Could we chat privately? Thanks.
January 4, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Yes, whenever you want, if I’m online.
February 23, 2013 at 1:22 am |
You really need to discuss this new “The Natural Communities of Georgia.” It is going to be THE reference book on natural ecological communities in Georgia for years to come. It just shipped yesterday. Amazon has it. I don’t have a financial interest in this, but I really think you ought to take a look at it and maybe discuss it in the blog.
February 23, 2013 at 1:15 pm |
I’ve known about this book for 2 years. I believe it was originally scheduled to be published last spring. I’m glad you let me know it’s finally out.
I plan on purchasing it soon.
June 1, 2013 at 1:59 pm |
MG: Hey, I’m the guy that gave you the heads-up on the “Natural Communities” book. Here’s a new one for your library. It’s “Roadside Geology of Georgia.” It’s brand-spanking new, all-color, and awesome. It discusses some of your blog topics. I think it’s a must-have for Georgia naturalists. A great starting point for many Georgia geology day-trips/drives.
June 1, 2013 at 4:40 pm |
You must not have read the last line of my review of the Natural Communities of Georgia. I wrote a note to self to look for Roadside of Geology when it gets published. I saw that one when I ordered the other book.
April 9, 2015 at 12:51 am |
MG: FYI – serious Pleistocene goodness in this quarter’s Southeastern Naturalist. The postal pack mule just delivered it to my dusty dirt road.
April 9, 2015 at 12:35 pm |
I know. Coincidentally, it’s the subject of my next blog essay.
May 11, 2015 at 5:06 am |
Hi, Mark. I founded and help edit a college conservation magazine, The Wildernist (www.thewildernist.org). I’d like to offer you a chance to submit to the magazine. If you’re interested, please email me or contact The Wildernist editorial team.
December 2, 2015 at 7:20 pm |
Hi Mark, would you please shoot me an email? I would like to talk to you about red wolves for a research project I am conducting for senior seminar, specifically about the Colbert Cave and Fern Cave wolf specimens. You seem to know your stuff, and would appreciate your insight. Thanks!
December 2, 2015 at 7:45 pm |
I’d be happy to, if I knew your email. If you don’t want to post your private email, you can send me a private message on my facebook page. The link is on my blogroll.
May 19, 2016 at 12:25 am |
Hi Mark,
You’ve probably already seen this paper but I thought I would forward the link if not. Seems like it would be up your alley.
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/5/e1600375.full
May 21, 2016 at 12:33 pm |
Thanks.
I’ll definitely be doing a blog article about this paper in the future.
May 20, 2016 at 12:43 pm |
Mark, Hi, you sent me a signed copy of your book a few years ago. Im finding this blog fascinating, as was your book. Where I live is an old disused limestone quarry, now a wildlife park where in 1900 the Yorkshire Geological Society uncovered mammalian remains of straight tusked elephants, hyena, hippopotamus, woolly rhinoceros and the mighty European cave lion. I found your book painted a very similar picture in my mind as to what this area was also once like. I have a wildlife & history trail here now and talk about the wonderful history of the place. 🙂
July 28, 2017 at 5:13 pm |
Mark, I your blog has been very helpful to me of late. I am writing a fiction tale about the reemergence of an extinct species in Georgia. I wonder if you would be interested in answering some questions I have.
July 28, 2017 at 7:56 pm |
Go ahead and ask.
August 25, 2017 at 4:16 pm
Mark, My book is fiction but I want it to as real as possible. From my research it appears that a consequence of the naval stores industry and prescribed burns have created a landscape in northeast Florida that is similar to how it was in the Pleistocene period. Is this correct or at least close?
August 25, 2017 at 2:30 pm |
Although my story is fiction, I am doing the best I can to make it plausible. Am I correct that the naval stores business and prescribed burning has created a landscape in northeast Florida similar to what it was during the Pleistocene period?
August 25, 2017 at 4:59 pm |
It depends. The environment varied during the Pleistocene, alternating between cold/dry and warm/wet cycles. Lightning-induced fire has always occurred in this region and prescribed fire merely mimics natural conditions. I wrote an article about a scientific study in northwest Florida that studied the pollen record in a lake. The pollen record indicated various dramatic changes in the environment. Here’s a link to the article. https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/changing-forest-composition-in-northwest-florida-over-the-past-40000-years/
From 40,000-31,000 years ago, chestnut and oak forest dominated northwest Florida. This was replaced by pine and oak woodlands interspersed with prairie openings.
Northeast Florida probably alternated between scrub oak and western style prairie environments during cold/dry cycles with pine savannah during warm/wet intervals.
August 25, 2017 at 5:54 pm |
Thank you.
November 28, 2019 at 4:59 pm |
I love your blog!!
May 2, 2020 at 3:15 pm |
Hi Mark
I really enjoy reading your blog. As someone from South Africa I find it fascinating the megafauna that North America once had that has been depleted, a similar process happened in much of South Africa more recently (luckily most of these species are not extinct, just limited to the most remote parts of the country).
I want to know if you could have an answer as to why for the most part peccaries, tapirs, camelids and spectacled bears dissappeared from North America despite originating there but survived in South America. Could it be due to harsh envrionemts to humans (mountains, rainforest) or developing fear to humans or another answer. It really baffles me.
Keep up the good work
May 3, 2020 at 12:42 pm |
Probably different reasons for each. Spectacled bears could co-exist with black bears in North America until there was the added stress of human presence. In South America there were more remote jungles and wilderness areas where human populations remained low, providing a refuge for metapopulations of peccaries. The superabundance of insects in tropical regions suppresses human populations there. I think tropical disease limiting human populations also explains the continued existence of megafauna in Africa. Some Indian tribes considered llamas to be sacred and protected rather than hunted them.
May 3, 2020 at 1:37 pm
Thanks. Sorry I may have repeated post.
August 10, 2020 at 11:43 pm |
Hello. My wife and I love looking for fossils at Edisto SC. We have some questions about what some stuff might be though.
Could you help identify them if I email you some pics?
Thank you.
August 11, 2020 at 1:18 pm |
I’d be glad to. If I can’t figure out what they are, I can forward them to someone who can. My email is iceage4058@att.net
December 2, 2020 at 2:59 pm |
Hello, Mark Gelbart! I’ve been looking at your blog for some time and I’m rather intrigued. I have a few questions that I hope you’ll answer.
1. What’s your favorite virus/organism
2. Are you based?
A. in what way are you based?
I appreciate the help!
December 2, 2020 at 10:00 pm |
I don’t have a favorite. I don’t know what you mean by “based.”
December 2, 2022 at 6:59 pm |
Hi Mark,
I’m a geoarcheologist in Arkansas writing a short (2 page) article for a newsletter called Field Notes on a fossilized stag moose (Cervalces) skull and antlers I measured last month. I was wondering if you would permit me to use a illustration from your blog of a male and female moose for the article.
If so, would you mind affirming who to credit for the great illustration, (you, Mark Gelbart?) My email address is jemorro@uark.edu. Thanks in advance for your help,
Julie Morrow
July 25, 2025 at 12:20 am |
You said the bar shooting scene in Hard Times had a flaw with him shooting with his right hand. It was actually a cool bit of cinematography. That shot with the right hand was him in the mirror as he is shooting out the mirror, so he was actually still shooting with his left hand.
I really enjoy your postings!
April 11, 2026 at 12:08 am |
Hey, I came across your blog while working on a new edition of Bartram’s Travels and I would love to chat with you about some of your research. –Christopher Robinson
April 11, 2026 at 12:07 pm |
I read it a bunch of times, if you want to call that research.
April 11, 2026 at 4:12 pm
It is clear that you know more than just having read it a few times. If you’d like to chat, my email is christopher.robinson@reinhardt.edu