There is a lot of scientific evidence in shit. A number of fungi species live in the shit of large mammals. Scientists take cores of sediment, carbon date the layers, and determined the species composition and abundance of dung fungus spores in the samples. (They also examine pollen and charcoal evidence.) The amount of dung fungus spores serves as a proxy for the former abundance of Pleistocene megafauna. Scientists have been looking at dung fungus spores in sediment cores all over the world to learn when Pleistocene megafauna became extinct. Recently, scientists studied a 50-foot-long sediment core taken from Lake La Yeguada in Panama. This lake is located in a mountain jungle forest near the equator and probably originated when a volcanic magma flow blocked a stream outlet.
Map and location of Lake La Yeguada. This image and all the others in this blog entry are from the below referenced study.
Graph showing dung fungus spore concentrations in sediment core taken at Lake La Yeguada.
Graph showing pollen evidence taken from the Lake La Yeguada sediment core.
Artist’s representation of the environmental changes over time at this location.
Most dung fungus studies from Central America show a single ultimate decline in megafauna populations, but at this site in Panama scientists discovered 3 declines and 3 recoveries. They found 29 species of dung fungi in the core. Megafauna was most abundant 16,600 years ago. The environment consisted of an open disturbed forest where oak, holly, myrtle, and palm trees dominated. Species of plants with large seeds and fruits were common. Fire was rare because megafauna ate so much of the understory, and there wasn’t much flammable material. The first decline in megafauna populations occurred 13,600 years ago when forested environments shifted to grassland. It seems likely humans arrived and burned down the forest and overhunted the large mammals, creating grassland. Megafauna populations recovered 11,200 years ago. Perhaps remnants of Pleistocene fauna from other areas recolonized this region, maybe after humans left for a while. Megafauna populations declined again 10,000 years ago, rebounded 9,000 years ago, declined once more 8400 years ago, and finally recovered 7600 years ago. After other megafauna became extinct populations of tapir and deer increased, perhaps explaining why dung fungus spore count made a final recovery 7600 years ago. The lake may attract higher populations of mammals than other studied areas. Species of megafauna that crapped in the lake likely included gompotheres (an elephant like species), toxodons, horses, tapirs, giant ground sloths, and glyptodonts.
The scientists who authored this study believe reintroducing large mammals here would increase the population of plants that produce large fruits and seeds because they spread the seeds in their dung. It would also reduce fire frequency due to the reduction in flammable plant material.
The authors note increasing global evidence supports the belief that humans are largely responsible for the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna, but the data they gathered for this paper wasn’t enough to determine cause of extinction one way or another.
Reference:
Pym, F. et. al.
“The Timing and Ecological Consequences of the Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Declines on the Isthmus of Panama: Implications for Trophic Rewilding”
Ulysses S. Grant considered Phil Sheridan the greatest general in history. The best example of Sheridan’s exemplary ability was his success turning defeat into victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek during October 18, 1864. The battle took place in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. The Confederate Army under Jubal Early made a surprise pre-dawn flank attack on the Union line, and they also attacked some exposed Union positions. This attack caused most of the Union Army here to retreat in panic. Meanwhile, General Sheridan had just returned from a meeting in Washington DC and was asleep. When he was informed of the attack, he mounted his horse and personally rallied troops back to the front. He reorganized the defense until it was a solid line. The Confederates paused their attack to forage through captured supplies because they were starving. This gave Sheridan time to organize a counterattack (he was a very aggressive commander), and they drove the Confederates back past their starting point earlier in the morning–a decisive victory and all in less than 24 hours. After this battle, the Confederate Army was never able to stop Sheridan’s troops from cutting the supply lines of the main army in Virginia, and the Confederates basically ran out of food and ammunition, forcing them to give up 6 months later.
General Sheridan was a career military man who worked his way up from lieutenant to commander of the U.S. Army. He greatly impressed all his superior officers during a career that included subduing recalcitrant Indians, decisively defeating the Confederate Army in battle after battle, and administering the defeated rebels during reconstruction.
Map of the Shenandoah Valley campaign where the Union Army cut off supplies to the main Confederate Army in Virginia. Along with Sherman’s march through Georgia, this made the Confederacy surrender. They ran out of food and ammunition.
Sheridan personally rallied the troops and reorganized them, turning a stunning defeat into a decisive victory all in 1 day at the Battle of Cedar Creek.
Historians aren’t sure where Phil Sheridan was born. Phil Sheridan was officially born in Albany, New York during 1831, but some suspect he was born on a ship when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. His mother may have lied, so she could claim he was an American from birth. He was part of a large Irish family that eventually settled in Somerset, Ohio where he clerked in a dry goods store as a teenager. This gave him the experience to be a good supply officer in the army. Sheridan was able to attain an appointment to West Point. He finished near the bottom of his class and was suspended for a year because he started a fight with an older classmate during a marching drill. He was lucky he was not expelled. Sheridan was short, standing just 5’5″, and had a pugnacious personality. The army assigned Sheridan to small western forts, first at Fort Duncan in Texas and later to Fort Reading in California until 1861 where he served as a supply officer. He gained experience solving disputes between Indian agents and Indians who were often cheated. There were some violent incidents.
The onset of the Civil War was a great development for career army officers stuck in stagnant assignments. He impressed his superior officers with his efficient audit of the Missouri quartermaster corps where the army had been defrauded by some corrupt officers. He was promoted to chief quartermaster officer for the 15,000-man army in Missouri. He was known for successfully cracking down on corrupt army officers profiting from the war. These were all non-combat positions, but he was finally promoted to Colonel and put in charge of the 2nd regiment of Michigan cavalry. He soon proved to be as good a combat officer as he was a supply officer. He led men in the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky and the Battle of Stones River. The first was a stalemate; the second was a resounding victory. His regiment’s performance in the latter battle was considered outstanding. Sheridan’s forces were under General Rosecrans when the Union Army outmaneuvered the Confederates through Tennessee and into north Georgia. His regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga–a defeat and uncharacteristically a less than stellar performance from his troops. He did manage to rally his troops and organize a successful rear-guard defense and retreat. Sheridan’s role in the Union victory at the Battle of Missionary Ridge during November of 1864 got him promoted to cavalry general of all the Union’s cavalry in Virginia. The Battle of Missionary Ridge was the Union’s army’s successful defense of Chattanooga when they were nearly surrounded and cut off from supplies.
Sheridan’s cavalry burned through the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, destroying farms, slaughtering livestock, wrecking railroad lines, and starving Confederates. Along with Sherman’s March through Georgia, this did more to shortening the war than anything else. They cut the Confederacy off from their main bread baskets. Sheridan’s cavalry was there at the end, ready to give the Confederate army a decisive final blow when they surrendered. He was disappointed that he didn’t get 1 more chance to beat them severely.
After the war General Sheridan was put in charge of a military district that included Louisiana and Texas. Union troops occupied the defeated rebellious states and had to protect freed slaves and enforce free elections. Sheridan did not like Texans and southerners, and he hated ex-Confederates. (He would have been infuriated that some modern military bases are named after mediocre traitorous Confederate Generals.) Sheridan oversaw the integration of street cars in New Orleans (southern whites didn’t think black people should ride in the same cars as them), and he quelled some of the political violence. He didn’t get along with southerners and during 1868 was put in charge of the U.S. Army in the west, then in the process of forcing Indians onto reservations.
Sherman’s successful war against the Indians mirrors the strategy he used to defeat the Confederacy. It was a ruthless campaign to cut off Indians from their supplies. Innocent people on both sides were killed. Indians massacred white settlers, and the army retaliated and often killed women and children when they raided Indian camps. The army attacked Indian camps in a war of attrition that just wore the Indians down until they gave up and agreed to go live on reservations. The U.S. Army didn’t win every battle. Most notably they lost at the Battle of Little Big Horn when Custer divided his forces and attacked a force of Indians that outnumbered his. But the relentless campaigns eventually did make the Indians quit.
Sheridan became commander of the whole U.S. Army after William Sherman retired. Sheridan didn’t get married until he was 44 in 1875. He did have an Indian lover who lived with him at Fort Reading before the Civil War when he was stationed in California. She came to see him many years later when he was in Washington DC before she agreed to marry a French trapper. Apparently, Sheridan was her first choice. It’s just conjecture on my part, but he probably didn’t want to marry her because a mixed-race marriage would have hurt his military career ambitions. Instead, he married Irene Rucker who was 23 years younger than him. They had 4 children. Despite having a small frame, Sheridan grew fat during middle age. He was always a hearty eater and drinker, and he developed heart problems. He suffered a series of heart attacks and died in 1888 at the age of 57.
Reference:
Morris, Roy
Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan
I always had a vague notion that life as a slave on a southern plantation before emancipation was miserable, but after reading a day-to-day account written by a literate British actress who married a slave-owner, I learned it was much worse than I even imagined. Fanny Kemble was the most famous actress in England during the early 19th century. Her father, also an actor, owned a theater that was struggling financially, so he decided to take his theater to the U.S. where his troupe toured the big cities on the eastern seaboard. Fanny met Pierce Butler in 1834 when she was 25, and he used his southern charm to persuade her to marry him. She gave up her successful acting career to be his wife. She was strongly opposed to slavery, but he conned her into believing his 700 slaves were well-treated and happy to be in bondage on his plantation. Butler lived in Philadelphia off the profits of his plantation, a business managed by Roswell King Sr. and his son Roswell King Jr. (The father founded the town of Roswell, Georgia, now a suburb of Atlanta.) The King family were exceptionally cruel overseers. The Kings managed the plantation for 37 years and the Butler Family hardly ever visited it. Rice was the primary crop, but cotton and sometimes sugar cane were also grown. Roswell King Jr. resigned his position during 1839, and Butler took his family to the plantation during January of that year in order to find a replacement manager. Fanny was horrified to discover how badly slaves were treated.
Location of Butler Island. It’s adjacent to the Altamaha River and close to the ocean.
Fanny Kemble was the most famous actress in England and America during the early 1830s. She was staunchly against slavery but fell in love with a slave-owner and married him. She wrote a day-to-day account of her 4 months stay at the plantation in 1839 in the form of letters to a Pennsylvania school teacher. She was horrified.
During some seasons slaves were forced to work from dawn to dusk. The overseer delegated authority to other slaves who were known as slavedrivers. To force the other slaves to keep working, the slavedrivers used whips. (Slavedrivers remind me of Kapos–the Jewish policemen in concentration camps during the Holocaust who helped the Germans enforce their rules.) Slavedrivers were allowed to give up to 15 lashes with the whip. If they thought the recalcitrant slave needed more lashes, they had to seek out the overseer who could give slaves as many lashes as he thought necessary.
Large slave families lived in 1 room huts with doors and windows always open. There was not enough room in these hovels for the whole family to lie down at the same time. They had leaky roofs and dirt floors and poultry roamed in and out due to the open doors and windows. The houses were filthy and full of chicken and duck shit. There was an infirmary for sick slaves, but it was in the same condition as their huts, and sick people had to lie on dirt floors because there were no mattresses let alone beds. Even the house slaves had to live in these huts because they were forbidden to stay overnight in the master’s house.
Slaves were given 1 set of clothes per year. They rarely could wash their clothes because they had nothing to wear when they were washing their only set of clothes. The clothes turned to rags that barely covered their bodies after working the fields all day every day. Slaves were allowed to make money by gathering and selling Spanish moss (used to stuff mattresses) and by selling poultry eggs, but the merchants often cheated them and sold cheap material, so that when they tried to make their own clothes, the material would tear into useless rags.
The slaves’ bodies were filthy and extremely smelly. After working 12 hour days, they didn’t have the energy to make a bath, a much more laborious luxury than it is today. Back then, it was necessary to draw buckets of water and make a big fire to heat the tub, and there was no privacy. The slaves were often covered in dirt, and this contributed to a high child mortality rate. When a child suffered a simple scratch, they often would contract tetanus, also known as lockjaw, and die. Leprosy was rampant and many slaves were walking around with missing ears, nose, and fingers.
Leprosy and tetanus were common on Butler Island Plantation because of the filthy conditions slaves were forced to exist in.
Overseers used black slave drivers to whip recalcitrant slaves. Women were whipped if they refused the sexual advances of the overseers.They were kept pregnant and constantly abused.It was a hellish existence.
After childbirth, women were excused from field work for just 3 weeks. Small children were relied upon to watch the babies and carry them to the mothers working in the fields when they needed to be nursed. This contributed to many health problems for the women who were not yet recovered from difficult childbirths. Childbirth was dangerous enough during the early 19th century. Many slave women had 10-16 children but often well over half or in some cases all of them had died.
There was no consensual interracial sex on Butler Island. Roswell King (both Jr. and Sr.) and his wife were psychopathic monsters. Ironically, Butler’s family and the owners of the surrounding plantations thought highly of the King family because they were able to keep Butler’s plantation profitable, but they must have been aware of how cruelly the slaves were treated. The planters used racist rationalizations to justify King’s actions. Planters disbelieved slaves complaining of cruelty because they believed slaves were habitual liars. Then slaves were whipped for complaining. Fanny noticed there were many mulattos on the plantation who resembled Roswell King Jr. and Sr., and she learned they were indeed the result of forced sex. Slaves who refused the King’s sexual advances were tied to trees and whipped. Worse yet, Roswell made 3 slaves pregnant within a short time span, and when his wife found out about it, she flew into a jealous rage and had all 3 pregnant slaves whipped, then sent to a remote part of the plantation, known as 5 Pounds, where they were raped again by the black slave driver. Roswell King took any slave he wanted, including married slaves, whose emasculated and degraded husbands could do nothing to stop him without risking a severe flogging and death. King did have some kind of relationship with 1 of his mulatto sons. This man expressed anger when he wasn’t allowed to keep a gun as a memento after his father resigned his position and left the plantation, but Butler did not want any of his slaves to have any kind of firearm for any reason. Fanny amazed the male slaves when she went on boat rides with them unescorted by any white man. Most of the plantation owner’s wives were afraid of the male slaves and stayed hidden indoors all day. Unlike Fanny, they did not venture outside for walks, horseback riding, or boat rides; and they thought Fanny was strange for exercising every day.
Slaves were fed twice a day–at noon and at dusk. They were given rice or grits. Children and handicapped slaves guarded the corn fields all day and night to prevent birds and other creatures from eating their most important food source. John Couper, the neighboring planter, grew peaches and turnips, so his slaves could have fresh fruits and vegetables. (He also successfully grew a fruiting date palm–an interesting novelty for the region.) He suggested growing peaches and turnips to Roswell King who rejected the idea–more evidence that he didn’t care at all about the health of the slaves. Good quality seafood abounded, but slaves were often too exhausted to fish. They did gather oysters and left piles of shells in the middle of plantation roads. Fanny praised the quality of local fish including mullet, shad, and the “Altamaha perch” (I’m not sure which species this refers to); but she was afraid to eat catfish. She often went fishing with a slave child, and he told her it wasn’t fit for white people and took them home for himself. On 1 occasion a neighbor gave Fanny a huge drum fish, and she was disgusted when the cook took the entrails home to feed to his family. Another time, the cook stole a ham and was whipped and demoted to field hand. She had a hard time getting another cook to butcher a sheep the way she wanted. Apparently, the sheep on the island grazed on salt marsh grasses, and it gave the mutton an excellent flavor. Slave children often begged for meat.
Fanny was able to prevent a family break-up. Pierce Butler wanted to reward King for his long-time service by giving him a male slave as part of his severance package. Unfortunately, he was married to a pretty mulatto slave with small children. Fanny objected and convinced Pierce, much to his annoyance, to stop the forced separation. I suspect Pierce wanted the slave woman as a secret side outlet for himself. Slaves often expressed their fear they would be sold off and separated if the plantation was sold.
While reading this narrative, I was most surprised at how ingratiating the slaves were to their owners. They were never sullen and expressed “unbreakable good humor.” They were so brainwashed by the system, they believed the white supremacists were right, and they were inferior. It was the explanation for why the white people were masters, and they were the slaves. It’s difficult for me to conceive of this mentality. The slaves had a big celebration when the Butler family arrived on their plantation, and the slave women, especially, always praised their masters, like they were the greatest people on earth. Even after long days of labor, they would come to the house to say hi and beg for small items, such as sugar or flannel. To me, it seems as if they worshipped their owners. This seems so strange to me, so Stockholm Syndrome-like. Most people, unaccustomed to be slaves would have been driven to violent rebellion, yet 1 small white family was able to control 700 black slaves.
Fanny noted the nature of Butler Island. She loved the Carolina jessamine and other flowers, and she enjoyed the birds. She described a bird that may have been a colorful painted bunting, a species not yet rare. She was impressed with some live oaks but not other individual trees, but she thought the pine savannahs and salt marshes were dreary. The snakes terrified her. Rattlesnakes and water moccasins abounded on the plantation, and she saw large black racers. She did think a green snake was pretty. Sand flies made some of her outings unbearable.
The Butler family left their island in April after a 4 month stay, and they went back to Philadelphia. The new overseer left after 1 year, and Butler rehired Roswell King Jr. who managed the plantation until it went bankrupt in 1859. Pierce Butler lost just about everything, and to pay off his creditors, he sold hundreds of his slaves, breaking up many families. Fanny and Pierce were divorced during 1849. They had 2 daughters. One was pro-slavery, like her father, and the other was against slavery, like her mother. The friction between Fanny’s and Pierce’s beliefs led to their divorce. He divorced her, but she tried to keep her marriage together and delayed publishing her journal for this reason. Her journal was not published until 1863.
Reference:
Kemble, Frances
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839
Ulysses S. Grant was a great general, but as President he fell short of what I would consider success, partly because he was ahead of his time and partly because he was so naive, he surrounded himself with unscrupulous crooks. Ulysses was born during 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio located near Cincinnati. His father owned a leather goods business during a time when most people needed saddles. The sight of the bloody carcasses gave Ulysses a lifetime aversion to meat unless it was cooked very well done. His father helped him get an appointment to West Point in 1839 where Ulysses excelled in math and horsemanship. He finished at the academy ranked in the middle of his class, but half of his class had dropped out before finishing the 4-year program, so he really finished better than 75% of his peers. His best friend at West Point was Fred Dent who invited Grant to visit his family in Missouri after graduation. On his visits to Fred’s home, he met and fell in love with Fred’s sister, Julia, a plain woman with a nice bust and a cross-eye that she never had surgically repaired. They married during 1848. The Grant and Dent families did not get along. The Grants were strong abolitionists and the Dents were slaveowners, and the Grant family refused to attend their son’s wedding in Missouri. Ulysses and Julia eventually had 4 children–3 boys and a girl.
The army assigned Grant to be a quartermaster, an officer in charge of obtaining and distributing supplies. He participated in the Mexican American War between 1846-1848. It was a war that he believed to be unjust. He witnessed and participated in battles and learned that he could remain cool under fire. Grant performed heroically in Monterrey, Mexico when he volunteered to ride his horse through crossfire in an urban combat situation to obtain much needed ammunition. He rode his horse in a zigzag pattern while lying flat on it. He also saw combat action when his regiment took the heavily defended Chalpotec Fortress.
Ulysses was an alcoholic, but he didn’t drink when he was with his family. Apparently, even a small amount of alcohol turned him into a silly fool. Unfortunately, the army separated him from his family when they assigned him to a post in the Pacific Northwest, a region too distant for his family to follow. There was no railroad yet and instead of traversing Indian territory, the army took steam ships to Central America, crossed tropical jungle, and took steam ships to San Francisco. Julia was pregnant at the time as well. Ulysses sought solace in alcohol because he was lonely and depressed, missing his wife and newborn child who he had never seen. His drinking did not interfere with his duties. Every soldier at this depressing outpost drank heavily (I never met a military man who was not a heavy drinker, and I’ve known many), but Colonel Buchanan, his commanding officer, had it in for Grant and forced him to resign after Grant showed up drunk on payday during 1854. He went home to be reunited with his family in Missouri. Grant’s father-in-law gave the family some land to farm and 4 slaves who Grant wanted to free but couldn’t because they were kept in his father-in-law’s name. Grant freed 1 slave Dent gave him the rights to almost immediately. Grant failed after 4 years of farming, then opened a real estate office in town which also failed. His partner fleeced him–just 1 example in his life when he had money stolen from him in white collar crooked schemes. Grant was so honest himself he couldn’t fathom the possibility that other people were not being honest with him. It was a serious flaw in his personality that led to trouble when he was President. He and his family moved to Galena, Illinois where he could work in 1 of his father’s leather goods stores. (His father owned several leather factories and stores across the Midwest.) Grant could carry heavy loads of cow hides that his brothers couldn’t handle. He also clerked in his store, but he didn’t enjoy this work and avoided customers. His career path changed when the Civil War started and he reenlisted.
Ulysses S. Grant and his family.
Grant survived war but his cigars killed him.
Elihu Washburne, a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln, represented Grant’s district in Illinois. Men with army experience were much sought at the beginning of the Civil War, and he helped Grant obtain his officer’s commission. Governor Yates put Ulysses in charge of 10 local regiments of state militia. As more troops joined the Union, Grant was elevated to Brigadier General. He made John Rawlins his adjutant general. Rawlins was a key figure who helped Grant throughout his future career, especially keeping him away from alcohol. Grant’s first success was capturing Paducah, Kentucky before Confederate troops even got there, then his forces defeated the Confederates at Belmont. Grant became a national celebrity when he led his troops to victory at Forth Henry and Fort Donelson at a time when Union forces were losing battle after battle in Virginia and the east. Grant was an aggressive commander always on the attack, and Lincoln liked this because his eastern Generals were slow and defensive. Grant’s victories gave the Union complete command of Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and part of the Mississippi Valley.
Next, Grant’s forces turned back a furious Confederate attack at Shiloh after Grant overcame some early tactical errors. Union forces advanced down the Mississippi River Valley where Grant oversaw a brilliant military campaign that led to the capture of Vicksburg, the last Confederate fortress in the West. Vicksburg’s defenses included 7 miles of fortifications, cliffs, ravines, manmade ditches, and swamps, and it was located at a hairpin turn of the river where ships could be stopped with artillery fire. Grant managed to sneak a major portion of his army past the artillery guns on ships at night south of Vicksburg, then had forces under Sherman feign an attack north of the city. Grant’s forces marched to the highlands to prevent Confederates from reinforcing Vicksburg, and they seized Jackson, Mississippi. They routed the Confederates at every battle during this campaign. They surrounded Vicksburg, and forced its surrender–a stunning victory that led Lincoln to name Grant the commanding officer in charge of the eastern Union Army.
Grant’s grand strategy led to the eventual surrender of the Confederate Army. First, he let Sherman loose into Georgia where his forces razed the heart of the South, destroying the breadbasket and munitions factories of the Confederacy. He attacked Confederate forces in Virginia, and he used Sheridan’s cavalry to destroy Confederate supply lines that fed Robert E. Lee’s forces in Virginia. Some critics unfairly call Grant a butcher because the Virginia campaign was so bloody with high casualty counts. Confederate forces had the advantage of being on the defensive, and according to theoretical military doctrine, attackers need at least a 3-1 advantage in manpower and firepower to have any chance of victory. Attacking forces necessarily have higher casualty counts. Moreover, warfare was evolving toward World War I style trench positions, a type of battle that just leads to many deaths. Grant was a much better strategist than Lee who refused to abandon Richmond, Virginia until it was too late.
Grant was a military hero after the Civil War and won the Presidential elections of 1868 and 1872. His record as President was mixed at best. His gullibility led to him appointing many crooks to cabinet positions, so his Presidency was constantly plagued by scandals. While he was President, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution were enacted, and he did his best to enforce them. At first he was mostly successful. Southern states held fair elections with black people voting and winning office, and he used federal troops to destroy the earliest incarnations of the KKK, but Reconstruction was ultimately overturned at the point of a gun. The vast majority of southern whites were furiously opposed to former slaves having any political power, and northern racists sympathized with southern whites. Support for enforcing reconstruction faded, and by the end of Grant’s 2nd term black people were barely 1 step above slavery. Southern white people lynched and murdered thousands of black people, intimidating them from participating in the political process. After Southern white people retook control of the state governments, they passed laws that made black people 2nd class citizens, and racists on the Supreme Court upheld these laws, limiting what the Federal Government could do until Civil Rights laws were passed during the 1960s. Grant was ahead of his time in his belief in Civil Rights, but he was defeated by the racism of his time.
Grant also sympathized with Native Americans (his personal secretary during the war and his Presidency was Native-American), but he could do little to stop railroads, miners, and the expansion of Western Civilization from encroaching on Indian lands. He replaced some crooked Indian agents who robbed them of government supplies but could never get rid of all of them. It was Grant, not Teddy Roosevelt, who founded the National Park Service when he made Yellowstone the first National Park.
During the Civil War Grant was aggravated when his father introduced him to 2 Jewish cotton speculators, and he ordered the removal of all Jewish people from his military district, an order Lincoln rescinded. Grant was not a bigoted person, and he regretted his kneejerk reaction. He was a good President for Jewish people and appointed more Jewish people to government positions than any other previous President. He also appointed many black people to government positions, something that was unheard of at the time.
Grant’s foreign policy was successful. Americans still resented England for its early sympathy with the Confederate cause, but Grant made lasting peace with England, an ally of the U.S. ever since. He helped Mexico overthrow foreign rule.
Grant blundered in economic matters. He did get the U.S. out of wartime debt, but during the Panic of 1873, he decided not to stimulate the economy, leading to a 5-year economic Depression.
After his 2nd term, Grant decided not to run for a 3rd consecutive term and went on a world tour with his family where he was greeted everywhere with enthusiastic crowds. He did run again in the 1880 Presidential election but lost the Republican nomination to Garfield.
Grant lost all his money and all of his family’s money in what we would call today, a Ponzi Scheme. Ferdinand Ward conned Grant into putting his name on an investment firm called Grant and Ward. Because Grant’s name was on it, many Union veterans put their life savings into this firm. It was a total scam, and everybody who invested in it lost every penny they put into it, including the extended Grant family. About the same time, Grant’s decades’ long habit of chain-smoking cigars caught up to him. He developed throat cancer. He was broke and dying. Mark Twain rescued Grant from his financial difficulties. He gave Grant a good deal in exchange for the rights to publish his memoirs. Grant suffered horribly while he struggled to write the book. He couldn’t eat, drinking any kind of liquid was painful; and he had to sleep sitting up because the huge cancerous tumor strangled him when he laid down. Doctors had to scrape phlegm from his throat daily. Nevertheless, he finished writing his memoirs a few weeks before his death, and they were a best seller, saving the family from poverty. Grant died in 1885.
Most paleoart depicts Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalis) living in a cold steppe environment. Although Neanderthals did range into steppe landscapes, they were likely more common in more forested areas or locations with at least some trees. A new study using paleoecology, archaeobotany, and climatology aims to change this common misconception.
Neanderthals first evolved about 430,000 years ago and lived until about 35,000 years ago when they were probably wiped out and/or assimilated by modern humans (Homo sapiens). During Ice Ages much of Europe and Asia was transformed into cold and arid grassy steppes where wooly mammoths, wooly rhinos, steppe bison, horses, and caribou roamed. However, there were important refugium where forested or partially forested ecosystems survived. These environments were located on the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, the southern Balkans, the Caucuses Mountains, the Zagros Mountains in Iran, and the Levant. During Interglacials most of Europe and western Asia were covered in mixed oak and pine forests. Interstadials, warmer climate phases within Ice Ages, saw the expansion of non-analogue plant communities where species with northern European affinities grew with Mediterranean species of plants in compositions not found today. Neanderthals occurred for 395,000 years. 72% of that time was during Ice Ages, but 28% of that time was during Interglacial periods. So, for about one-third of their existence, forest and woodland environments predominated. Forested refugium existed during Ice Ages, and the majority of the Neanderthal population probably gravitated toward these environments rather than cold steppe where food was scarcer.
Traditional illustrations of Neanderthal landscapes. Though they did occur in steppe environments, they were probably more common in wooded ecosystems because there was more food. From the below referenced paper.
Neanderthals were more common in environments depicted in this image. There were more resources than on the steppe. This represents an interstadial climate phase when trees encroached on grasslands.From the below referenced paper.
Another environment likely preferred by Neanderthals. Other woodland environments may have been modified by fires started by Neanderthals to keep them more open.
Forested environments provided more food than steppe environments. Neanderthals had ready access to plant foods, including acorns, nuts, seeds, fruit, and edible forbs and grasses. A dental wear study of Neanderthals who lived in what is now Greece suggests they did eat fruit, seeds, grasses and sedges. The animals preyed upon by Neanderthals were more abundant in forested areas than on steppes because of the available forest mast. Neanderthals could hunt red deer, roe deer, wild boar, goat, aurochs, woodland bison, rabbit, and hare. Prey occurred in denser populations and would be easier to ambush than on open steppes where the approach of hunting people could be observed for quite a distance. Rivers and streams with fish were more common in forested regions as well.
From the below referenced study I was most interested in the discussion of non-analogue woodlands found in the southern Balkans during some Interstadial climate phases. Between 60,000 BP-30,000 BP climate fluctuated rapidly from cold to warm phases. The alternating phases didn’t last long enough to cause a complete change in climate that would terminate most species of plants with either warm or cold climate affinities. Here, temperate species including oak, chestnut, birch, hackberry, pine, and fir grew alongside Mediterranean species such as olive, mock privet, pistachio, and manna ash. This is the type of environment I would most like to see, if I could jump in a time machine. I’m sure it would host the most diverse faunal assemblage.
Reference:
Carrion, J.; G. Amoros, A. Amoros, A. Marion Arroyo
“Beyond the Cold Steppes: Neanderthal Landscapes and the Neglect of Flora”
Ichnologists examined animal tracks found near the coast of Spain at 4 sites, and they date to the last Interglacial ranging in age from 90,000 years BP-140,000 years BP. Ichnology is the study of animal tracks. They found tracks that compare favorably to the enormous, extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), horse, red deer (known as elk in North America), wolf, stone marten, and beetle. The sites include Torro de Copa, Calblanque, Monte de la Ceniza, and Pena del Aquela Regional Nature Park. The tracks are important evidence that these species occurred here because their remains are not found in the local fossil record, though they are found in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Location and geological setting of sites where fossil tracks of animals dating to the last Interglacial were found in Spain.From the below referenced paper.
The tracks were found in fossilized sand dunes created by Ice Age winds. Note the impressions of raindrops. This indicates the sand was wet when the tracks were made. From the below referenced paper.
Fossilized elephant tracks. From the below referenced paper.
Map of sites where evidence of extinct elephants have been found. The yellow represent tracks; the red circles represent bones. From the below referenced paper.
Straight-tusked elephants were 1 of the largest land mammals of all time. There were 4 species and they ranged across Africa, Europe, and Asia. I believe they would still exist today, if not for man. During Ice Ages mammoths replaced them in colder regions, but they could still occur in warmer regions of Europe and Asia.
Ichnologists find impressions of rain drops in the sand next to the tracks, indicating the sand was wet from rain when the tracks were made. The tracks were made on coastal sand dunes that formed during a previous Ice Age when climate was dry, and wind blew sand into big dunes. However, by the time these tracks were made, wetter climate fostered the spread of beach shrubs that stabilized the dunes. They were walking through a scrubby habitat with many bare spots. The dunes were adjacent to a mixed forest of ash, birch, fir, and hornbeam. Straight-tusked elephants likely fed on the twigs and leaves of these plants. Some tracks appear as if the animals were just passing through, perhaps as part of a seasonal migration. Other trackways suggest the animals were congregating on the spot and trampling the ground. Neanderthals likely hunted these animals here.
The sites were dated using uranium-series dating of coral and seashells. They must have been rapidly covered by sediment that today is being eroded away, making them visible. It’s a nice snapshot of the local fauna during the interglacial. If not for man, all of these species would still enjoy living next to the Mediterranean Sea today.
Reference:
Carvalho, C.; et al
“New Vertebrate Track Sites from the Last Interglacial Dune Deposits of Coastal Murcia (Southeastern Spain): Ecological Corridors for Elephants in Iberia”
I’ve always been fascinated with the Sangamonian Interglacial, known as the Eemian Interglacial in Europe. It’s the most recent climate phase when average annual global temperatures were the same or even higher than those of today. No major extinction of megafauna occurred during this phase–the best evidence against climate models of Pleistocene megafauna extinction. The Sangamonian Interglacial lasted from 132,000 years BP-118,000 years BP, although the below referenced study frames it between 128,000 years BP-117,000 years BP. Climate was likely not noticeably different during the discrepancy between these 2 parameters. The north polar ice cap completely melted during the Sangamonian Interglacial, resulting in higher sea levels than today. The north polar ice cap also completely melted during the early Holocene about 10,000 years ago. (Note: and polar bears did not become extinct as alarmists claim will happen.) Scientists are also interested in the Sangamonian because it provides an analogue for today’s climate but without the influence of manmade greenhouse gases. Recently, scientists studied ancient shorelines that existed during the Sangamonian Interglacial at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They appear today as ridges or terraces, referred to as outcrops as well, and they consist of crushed consolidated seashells including coral, clams, and oysters. 1 of these outcrops has a layer of peat inside the shelly sediment, suggesting the existence of a marsh, and another 1 has an eolian or windswept sand dune embedded in the layer from dunes that formed during an arid climate cycle.
Location of the area studied in the below referenced paper. Yellow lines represent high stands. Peninsular Florida was mostly submerged with the exception of a few islands. During the Pliocene shoreline was even higher and extended into the middle of South Carolina where the shoreline consisted of sea cliffs. Today, it is the eroded Orangeburg Escarpment.
Another map from the below referenced study showing terraces from former shorelines when sea level was higher than today.
Cold water coral (Desmophyllum pertusum) occurs on the Blake Plateau off the coast of South Carolina. It forms an important ecosystem. Scientists date ancient shorelines using radiometric dating, specifically Uranium series dating of coral found in the terraces.
Ribbon corals, also known as sea whips occur in shallow water off the coast of South Carolina. They are not a true coral.
The scientists dated these old shoreline ridges using uranium series dating from coral fossils and by using optically stimulated luminescence. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optically_stimulated_luminescence ) They determined sea level rose no more than 15 feet during the early Sangamonian. Throughout the Sangamonian sea level fluctuated between 9-21 feet higher than that of today. Sea level rose rapidly during the early Sangamonian, stabilized, then rose again. Fluctuations were rapid and corresponded with unstable ice sheets. This new study agrees with earlier studies of these marine high stand terraces at other locations. During Ice Ages sea levels retreated as more of earth’s moisture became locked in glaciers, and dry land habitat occurred as much as 50 miles off the modern-day coast.
Reference:
Dean, S.; et al
“Last Interglacial Relative Sea Level Changes at Myrtle Beach, S.C.”
35 years ago, I saw a photograph of Jack Johnson and was so impressed with his physique that I was inspired to buy a punching bag. I’ve been banging on the heavy bag for 4 5-minute rounds twice a week ever since. For some stupid reason (I don’t know why) punching the bag gave me more confidence than tennis or weight-training–2 other physical activities with which I was fairly proficient. I was surprised to recently learn that neither my wife nor my sister had ever heard of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world. He won the championship in 1908 when roughly 10% of the U.S. population belonged to the KKK, and this hate group was mainstream, not like today when it’s just an organization for a few hateful losers. The heavyweight boxing champion was the most famous celebrity in sports throughout the entire 20th century, and boxing was 1 of the most popular sports in 1908, ranking behind baseball, horse racing, and maybe bicycle racing. (Football was in its infancy. The forward pass had just been legalized.) Today, most people aren’t aware of the heavyweight champion (Olexander Usyk from Ukraine), and I (a boxing fan) even had to look his name up to remind myself of who the current champion is. It was a big disaster for white supremacists and racists when a black man won this coveted title near the turn of the last century. Here is a brief history of Jack Johnson’s life.
Johnson was born in Galveston, Texas during 1908. His parents were former slaves who worked their way into a respectable middle-class standard of living. His father was a janitor, and his mother washed other people’s clothes. His family included 8 natural brothers and sisters and an adopted brother. Nevertheless, his parents managed to buy a nice house that was later destroyed by the famous Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Galveston was a port city with many different types of people, and it was less viciously racist than most other cities of the time. Jack’s best childhood friend was white. To make money as a child, Jack held on to the milkman’s horse when he took bottles to people’s front doors.
Jack didn’t like working on the docks as a teenager, and he started boxing for money. He hoboed on a train and went to Chicago for his first fight where he met Jack Curley, the promoter who transmogrified pro wrestling into the pre-arranged spectacle that it is today. Curley would later promote Jack’s fight with Jess Willard. Jack’s first fight was a battle royale, an event where a group of black men wearing blind folds swung at each other, and the last man standing was the winner and would get a few bucks. White spectators thought these events were hilarious. Jack was the winner. Jack worked a little while as a sparring partner in New Jersey, then returned to Galveston and beat the local heavyweight champion. His first notable fight was against the Jewish boxer Joe Choynski, an experience fighter who had had bouts with 5 different champions. (Choynski was the first boxer ever to get hit by a left hook, a punch invented by Gentleman Jim Corbett during his 26-round fight against Choynski on an offshore barge. Corbett had broken his hand but it hurt less to land a hook. Corbett won the fight but had to be told he won because he was senseless himself.) Boxing was illegal in Texas, so the bout between Johnson and Choynski was billed as a physical education exhibition. Choynski knocked Johnson out in the 3rd round with a sudden left hook to the eye, and as soon as the fight was over, 6 Texas Rangers entered the ring and arrested the fighters. The judge told Choynski he should be ashamed of himself for beating up a poor black kid who didn’t know anything about boxing, and he sentenced the 2 of them to spend their days in jail, though at night Choynski went to a hotel and Johnson went home. They sparred for the guards and reporters while in jail and became good friends. Choynski advised Johnson to become a more defensive fighter, and this change in tactics made him more successful. The judge released them, and Johnson headed to California where boxing was legal and popular.
Johnson’s physique inspired me to buy a heavy punching bag 35 years ago, and I’ve been banging on it ever since. His bout with Ketchel was semi-fixed, but Ketchel sucker punched Johnson who got up and really knocked Ketchel out.
Johnson and Choynski were arrested after their fight in Texas because boxing was illegal there. Choynski advised Johnson to become a defensive fighter and the counseling made him a better fighter.
Johnson’s 1st legal wife. She was an actress who killed herself. Johnson was reviled by both black and white for marrying white women.
Johnson developed into a great defensive fighter with a terrific right uppercut. The uppercut was an effective punch for the style of fighting then that involved much clinching and infighting. (I can’t really analyze his fights because the ancient film quality is so poor I can’t determine if punches land.) Early during his career he had a hard time with Klondike Smith, another black fighter with a defensive style, but he fought him 5 times and eventually beat him. Johnson’s first manager was Frank Carillo, a saloon-owner who had financial interests in racehorses as well. Carillo was the kind of unscrupulous crook who would set up illegal cock fights, call the police on the participants, and loan bail money to the people in jail at exorbitant interest rates. Sportswriters first took note of Johnson when he was Kid Carter’s sparring partner, and he was beating him. Johnson won the “colored” heavyweight championship in 1903 and fired Carillo for stealing his money. In another important bout he defeated Ed Martin in a 20-round fight, knocking him down 3 times despite being outweighed by 70 pounds. Next, he destroyed the former heavyweight champion Bob Fitzimmons–an easy 3 round knockout. Johnson began campaigning to fight the white heavyweight champion, Jim Jeffries, but Jeffries refused to give a black man the chance to win the heavyweight championship for blatantly racist reasons. Jeffries retired after wiping out all the white contenders. Tommy Burns won a tournament to replace Jeffries as champ, and he promised Johnson his turn, but first he took on all the top white contenders. Johnson even followed Burns to Australia to challenge him. Eventually, Burns agreed to the fight, though he earned 6 times more money than Johnson for the bout. Burns was only 5’7″, but he was a good fighter often beating much larger opponents. Johnson’s skill had him outclassed. His rushing style was tailor made for Johnson’s defensive style. Johnson knocked him out in the 15th round. Racist white people were appalled. Newspapers referred to Johnson with every racist epithet I’ve ever heard, and some I haven’t. Southerners offered to lynch him.
Johnson’s first notable defense after a couple of exhibitions was a fight with the middle weight champion Stanley Ketchel, the first “Great White Hope.” (All the white fighters who challenged Johnson were the hope of racists.) The fight was semi-fixed. (It may have been so they could sell film rights for a long bout, but no one really knows why.) Johnson was supposed to carry Ketchel for 20 rounds and get the decision. Ketchel had a rushing style, also tailer made for Johnson. However, Ketchel double crossed Johnson and sucker punched him, knocking him down. Johnson got up and knocked Ketchel out with a blow so hard it knocked 4 of his teeth out which stuck in Johnson’s glove. Now, the public demanded Jeffries come out of retirement to save the honor of the white race. Nat Fleischer, founder of Ring Magazine, saw every heavyweight champion from Gentleman Jim Corbett to Muhammad Ali, and he claims Jeffries was the best in his prime. Jeffries was no longer in his prime by the time he agreed to fight Johnson. He had been retired for 5 years, was drinking heavily, smoked 6-7 packs of cigarettes a day, and had ballooned up to 300 pounds. He did get back into shape, and the fight took place in 1910. It was by far the biggest most anticipated sporting event of the 20th century up to that point. Jeffries might have won a few early rounds, but Johnson outboxed him and knocked him out in the 15th round. The overtly racist crowd attending the fight was stunned silent. As a result of the fight, race riots across the country led to the deaths of 11 people. Scores more were wounded.
Jack Johnson defeated Jim Jeffries in 1910. A sea of white people were stunned silent by the result.
Johnson went to Europe due to legal difficulties which I will discuss below. There, he beat overmatched competition in exhibitions simply for pocket money, including the first all-black heavyweight championship bout (for the real title) against Battling Jim Johnson. His next big fight was in 1915 in Havana, Cuba against Jess Willard, an ex-bronco buster who was as big as modern heavyweights at 6’7″ and 230 pounds. By now, Johnson was not training hard and was overconfident. He agreed to a 45 round fight and easily outboxed Willard for most of 20 rounds. If it would have been like a modern 12 or 15 round fight, he would have easily retained his crown by decision. Instead, it was very hot, and Willard used his weight to wear Johnson out. Finally, he knocked Johnson out in the 26th round. Years later, Johnson claimed he threw the fight, but evidence suggests this was not true, and he was trying to sell a phony story for money. It was over 90 degrees F, and it doesn’t make sense that he would toil so hard in that heat, if he was planning on taking a dive. Johnson continued to fight exhibitions for money but never fought a top contender after losing his crown. He wanted to fight Jack Dempsey who destroyed Willard in 1919 to win the heavyweight crown, but Dempsey’s promoter wouldn’t let him fight black boxers. Though Dempsey’s aggressive style was tailor made for Johnson, he was much younger and in much better shape. Dempsey likely would have won. Johnson fought well into his sixties because he was always nearly broke. Until he was 48 he won against overmatched competition and made top contender Firpo look bad in sparring, but in his late 40s he even started losing to lesser opponents.
Johnson was already reviled for being a black heavyweight champion, but he made even more enemies by openly courting and marrying white women when miscegenation was illegal in more than half of the states. Most of the women were prostitutes who he referred to as his wife when in public. He did fall in love with the mentally unstable actress Etta Duryea, and he really married her. Johnson’s conduct was questionable. He continued seeing prostitutes behind her back, and he beat her (putting her in the hospital) at least once. She suffered from depression and committed suicide. 3 weeks later, Johnson started seeing another white prostitute, Lucille Cameron who performed in his integrated night club known as the Cafe de Champion. He married her, and her mother, with the aid of a crooked lawyer, falsely accused Johnson of forcibly holding her captive. This began Johnson’s legal troubles, eventually forcing him to live overseas as a fugitive from justice. There was a popular conspiracy theory then that Jews were kidnapping white women and forcing them to live as slaves for rich black men. As a result, Congress passed The Mann Act which expressly forbade the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes. (An unmarried couple who went out of state for a vacation together could be prosecuted, showing how ridiculous this law was.) Johnson tried to bribe his way out of it but was forced to flee to Canada to avoid a certain prison sentence. From there he went to England and France and performed a strong man act and acted in plays in theaters between fights. He even starred in a Spanish movie, though that film hasn’t survived the ravages of time. He spent some time in Cuba where he lost to Willard, and Mexico before crossing the border and turning himself in to authorities. The feds sent him to Leavenworth prison for 2 years, but thanks to his political connections, he was treated better than the average prisoner and put on boxing shows for inmates.
After his release from prison, Johnson performed in small theaters and boxed for small prize winnings, but he was not popular and was no longer front-page news. He stumbled from one failed money-making scheme to another, and he never saved much money. He was always a spend-thrift. He did buy a house for his mother, but he spent most of his money on fast cars, jewelry, and women. His 2nd wife divorced him. Shortly after this divorce, he married his 3rd and final wife, Irene Pineaux. She said he was charming, and she always vigorously defended his reputation.
Johnson was a reckless driver. He once spent 2 weeks in jail for repeated speeding tickets, and 1 year when he was drinking heavily, he totaled 4 cars. He drove even faster during ice storms, and some of his friends refused to be passengers in his car. On a road trip from Chicago to Texas, he and his companion stopped at a restaurant but were forced to eat behind the establishment because they didn’t serve black people. Johnson drove so angrily after this incident, he wrecked his car and died as a result of the accident. His passenger survived. Johnson was 67.
Black boxers of later generations blamed Johnson for their difficulties in getting chances to fight for titles. They thought his open defiance of social norms gave black fighters a bad reputation. Joe Louis overcame this obstacle and became the first black boxing champion who was mostly accepted by white people. Johnson had a feud with Louis and openly rooted for his opponents. Jack Blackburn was Louis’s trainer. Blackburn was a great lightweight boxer who never had a chance to fight for the title. Despite being a lightweight, he outboxed Johnson in sparring decades earlier, and they didn’t like each other. Johnson wanted Louis to fire Blackburn and hire him as his trainer. Louis’s refused to fire Blackburn, and a bitter jealous Johnson constantly belittled Louis in the press, starting a feud that never ended, while they lived. Muhammad Ali, however, always expressed his admiration for Johnson’s defiance against the racist norms of the time.
Reference:
Ward, Geoffrey
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
The extinction of all dinosaurs (except birds) at the end of the Cretaceous Age was made famous 45 years ago when a crater was found in the Gulf of Mexico–confirming a comet impact as the cause of the extinctions 66 million years ago. A lesser-known local extinction of dinosaurs occurred 145 million years ago at the end of the Jurassic Age. From geological and paleontological evidence scientists determined dinosaurs were diverse and abundant in western North America from 152 million years ago to 145 million years BP, but these species became extinct after a sudden cataclysmic event. Scientists suspect a mega volcano eruption rubbed out all the dinosaurs in this region then. During the late Jurassic sauropods such as diplodocus (the largest known land animal in earth’s history), allosaurs, stegosaurs, and small ornithomimids (bird-like dinosaurs but not ancestral to birds) dominated the faunal composition. After the extinctions Cretaceous Age species gradually colonized the region and ecologically replaced the Jurassic Age species, although sauropods continued to live in other regions of the earth. Iguanodons, ankylosaurs, and smaller species of ornithomimids were the new inhabitants of the region. The early Cretaceous dinosaur composition was less diverse in this region than the late Jurassic.
The Morrison formation consists of sedimentary rocks that have the best evidence of Jurassic Age dinosaurs in North America.
Scientists found an interesting faunal turnover between the late Jurassic and the early Cretaceous in the Morrison Formation located mostly in Utah. Poster from James Kirk’s twitter feed.
Plant fossils from the Morris Formation include conifers, cycads, and ancestors of ginko.
The northern part of the Morris Formation yielded fossil remains of a different species of allosaur than the southern part. Scientists don’t know why 2 different species evolved. They don’t know of any physical barrier between the 2 areas.
Sauropods like this diplodocus and stegosaurs were the main species of large plant-eaters in western North America before the Jurassic Morrison extinctions.
Stegosaurs didn’t make it to the Cretaceous.
Evidence of this faunal turnover comes from the Morrison Formation–mountains of sedimentary rock found in western North America, mostly Utah. During the late Jurassic this area was a floodplain bordered by a newly forming mountain range. Cycads and conifers grew on the plain, and rivers flowed from the mountains into a vast marshy lake. Some of these trees have been preserved in petrified forests located in Dinosaur National Monument. The northern and southern part of this region hosted 2 different species allosaurs and 2 different species of carnosaurs. Scientists haven’t figured out why the northern and southern parts of this region had different species of carnivorous dinosaurs. They know of no physical barrier that would have contributed to this speciation. The region shifted frequently between wet and dry climate cycles, but scientists don’t think this was a factor in the sudden extinctions of Jurassic Age dinosaurs here. Dinosaurs were thriving and diverse up until their sudden end here.
Reference:
Kirkland, J.; E. Sampson, M. Wizecurch, and D. Deblieux
“Paleosols in the Lower Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Eastern Utah Indicate the Earliest Cretaceous (Borrasian) in the Colorado Plateau was Exceptionally Wet”
75th Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Geological Survey 2025
Maidmont, S.
“Diversity Through Time and Space in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, western USA”
It’s a mystery how many species of woodland herbs recolonized New England and Southern Canada following the end of the last Ice Age. Glaciers scoured away the topsoil, leaving no ungerminated seeds, and statistical models suggest that many species of woodland herbs could not have re-expanded their range as rapidly as they did. Canada wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) is an example of a woodland herb that recolonized deglaciated territory faster than models suggest is possible. Wild ginger relies on ants for dispersal. Ants carry the fleshy seeds to their nests where the fatty covering is consumed. This is known as myrmecochory. The seeds are then discarded and will eventually germinate. Wild ginger also spreads via roots. Scientists calculated how far this species could expand its range considering its dependence on ants and root growth. Ants can transport the seeds up to 35 meters in 1 season. They determined this species could only have expanded by 30 miles over 16,000 years. Instead, this species expanded its range by over 960 miles. Scientists are stumped, but I think I’ve figured out an obvious solution.
A colony of Canada wild ginger.
Range map of Canada wild ginger. It expanded its range into New England and southern Canada within the past 16,000 years from refugia south of the Ice Sheet.
Passenger pigeon range (before extinction). Note how closely the breeding range of this species corresponds with the range of Canada wild ginger. I hypothesize passenger pigeons spread wild ginger seeds in their dung, and that explains how wild ginger expanded its range so rapidly following the end of the last Ice Age.
Ants spread wild ginger seeds, but ant propagation does not explain how wild ginger expanded its range so rapidly into recently deglaciated regions.
A few explanations for the rapid recolonization of New England and southern Canada by wild ginger have been proposed. Perhaps, the seeds adhered to the hooves or fur of migrating mammals, such as caribou or bison; or a storm blew the seeds a great distance. Wild ginger refugia may have existed in nunataks–unglaciated territory, usually on elevated hills, that occurred within glaciers. However, I hypothesize an obvious solution to this mystery. It seems likely passenger pigeons (Ectopistes migratorius) fed upon wild ginger seeds and defecated the viable seeds at a much greater distance than ants carry them away. It may not be coincidence the area recolonized by wild ginger happened to closely correlate with the breeding range of this species. Armies of passenger pigeons used to forage on the forest floor in eastern North America devouring all the acorns, nuts, and seeds. I think wild ginger and other woodland herbs recolonized deglaciated North America thanks to passenger pigeons. I can’t figure out how to test this hypothesis. An experiment could be conducted to see if extant species of doves or pigeons actually will eat wild ginger seeds. The isotopic signature of wild ginger can’t be distinguished from other species passenger pigeon ate so we can’t get the answer by analyzing passenger pigeon specimens in museums. We could also see, if wild ginger seeds remain viable when they pass through a pigeon gut.
Wild ginger is not related to true ginger (Zingiber oficianale) but reportedly has a similar spicy aroma. Indians used the root as a seasoning and medicine, but it is a carcinogen, like tobacco–another cancer-causing plant Indians introduced to Western culture. Snakeroot oil is made by grinding up wild ginger roots and distilling the liquid. Modern medical scientists do not recommend its use.
Reference:
Cain, M.; H. Dumany, and A. Muir
“Seed Dispersal and the Holocene Migration of Woodland Herbs”
GeorgiaBeforePeople 