3 megaherbivores roamed South American tropical forests during the late Pleistocene. A megaherbivore is an animal that weighs in the tons. Eremotherium, an extinct species of ground sloth, was the largest, growing to 15 feet long and weighing as much as 12,000 pounds. Notiomastodon platensis and Toxodon platensis were massive animals as well. A new study of these 3 species determined they were browsers that mostly fed in closed canopy jungles and tropical woodlands. The authors of the study analyzed the tooth wear and bone chemistry from numerous specimens of these species to come to this conclusion.
Location of where the specimens used in this study came from. From the below referenced paper.
Graph showing diet of the 3 species discussed in this blog entry. They all thrived in forested environments, but 2 specimens of notiomastodons came from animals that could survive in wooded grasslands as well.
Deviant art AI came up with some good images of mastodons foraging in tropical jungles.
A fairly accurate image of a mastodon from deviant art AI.
The ground sloths I tried to conjure up on deviant art AI looked more like apes, so I ripped off this image from dinosaur wiki.
Deviant art AI also doesn’t know what a toxodon was. When prompted, it produced images of dinosaurs. This image is by Ja Charinos.
The isotopic values of notiomastodons were remarkably similar to those of modern African forest elephants (Loxodon cyclotis), recently determined to be a different species than African savannah elephants. African forest elephants feed upon leaves, fruits, and bark. 2 specimens of notiomastodons were an exception and apparently came from individuals that ate a diet of savannah vegetation, showing it was the kind of animal with the ability to be more of a generalist feeder. Eremotherium and toxodons depended upon plants that grew in forest and woodlands, as far as we know. The results of the study are consistent with conclusions from other studies. Some pollen studies suggest South American rain forests converted to open savannah during the Last Glacial Maximum, but other studies do not. It seems likely grasslands did expand during the coldest stages of Ice Ages in this region, but enough forest refugia remained to support healthy populations of these 3 species of megaherbivores.
Reference:
Asevedo, L.; Semprebon, G., Pansani, T, and J. Paixao
“Feeding Ecology of Pleistocene Herbivorous Mega Mammals from Southern Brazilian Amazon Revealed by Stable Isotopes and Stereoscopic Microwear”
We stayed in Charleston, South Carolina for 2 days and enjoyed our annual family vacation. We visited Magnolia Plantation Gardens, Botany Bay, and Edisto Beach.
Magnolia Plantation Gardens
This former rice plantation is 464 acres. It costs $32 per person to gain admission, but children and seniors get discounts. I count as a senior now because I am older than 62. They charge even more for guided tours which are unnecessary. It’s a beautiful attraction. The grounds include swamps, ponds, woodlands dominated by Spanish moss-covered live oaks and magnolias, nice lawns, and spectacular flower gardens. They have a small zoo with rehabbed animals that are still so disabled they can’t be released into the wild. Unfortunately, it was closed for a veterinarian wellness check-up when we were there. I did get a photo of a limping but happy fox where the zoo was visible from outside. I saw a wild alligator that was only about 1.5 feet long along with lots of squirrels and birds.
Some of the live oaks on this plantation are hundreds of years old.
Magnolia Plantation House. The original burned down. The bottom floor is a tourist trap gift shop with high prices.
One of many spectacular flower gardens at Magnolia Gardens Plantation.
More flowers.
The walking paths are lined with Spanish moss-covered live oaks.
I was impressed with the fungus on this live oak.
There are statues of herons here, but I did see a little blue heron fly away from this cypress swamp.
A stand of 40 foot tall bamboo cane.
The wildlife rehab center was closed for the veterinarian visit, but I got a photo of this big, shaggy, happy fox that ran around with a limp.
Bluebirds.
Brown-headed cowbirds with a pony. There were 3 ponies and either a donkey or a mule.
Botany Bay Wildlife Management Area
Botany Bay is a wildlife management area with live oak dominated maritime forests, beach, and planted agricultural fields that help augment the natural diet of dove, turkey, deer, and squirrel. I saw a mother hen turkey with a chick but was driving and couldn’t get a photo.
Stingrays feeding or spawning.
This cedar tree is dying due to exposure to salt air. The palm and saw palmetto are better adapted.
The ocean is eroding into a forest here, killing the trees.
Ditto.
Flock of brown pelicans.
Edingsville beach was a summer resortwhere plantation owners escaped the heat of the low country before the Civil War. After the Civil War sharecroppers lived in the 40 tabby homes. There were also 2 churches and a billiard saloon. During the late 19th century a hurricane washed the town away.
Corn and sunflowers planted to feed the wildlife.
Edisto Beach
Edisto Beach is one of the best beaches I know of for collecting sea shells and fossils. Pleistocene-aged mammal fossils and Miocene-aged shark teeth have been found here, but most of them are on the north end of the beach. I didn’t want to leave my disabled wife for as long as it would have taken to walk there and had to settle for what I could find on the south end of the beach. The grayish blue shells may be thousands of years old. The most interesting artifact was the piece of tabby on the upper right. It may have come from one of the dwellings washed away from Edingsville during a late 19th century hurricane.
On this vacation including the drive from Augusta, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina and back, I saw 27 species of birds including black vultures, ospreys, a red-tailed hawk, a swallow-tailed kite, a Mississippi kite, a sparrow hawk (maybe), a turkey, Canadian geese, a cormorant, laughing gulls, brown pelicans, a little blue heron, great egrets, cattle egrets, crows, blue jays, blue birds, mocking birds, mourning doves, cardinals, summer tanagers (maybe), an eastern kingbird, a chimney swift, boat-tailed grackles, red-winged blackbirds, brown headed cowbirds, and an immature white ibis. A couple of these I couldn’t identify for sure because I was driving. The swallow-tailed kite was the only uncommon bird that I saw. I also saw gray squirrels, anole lizards, a small alligator, stingrays spawning, and road-killed armadillos, raccoons, white-tailed deer, possum, fox, and rabbit.
Good Eats
There is an osprey nest on the property of Ellis Creek Fish Camp Restaurant on James Island, South Carolina.
Ellis Creek Fish Camp Restaurant on James Island. The food here is very fresh.
I had a grouper sandwich with a side of collard greens at the Ellis Creek Fish Camp restaurant. Grouper is very mildand has a texture like chicken. All the food here was very fresh and good.
The Ellis Creek Fish Camp restaurant overlooks a salt marsh. Note: It is ringed by condos. James Island has gotten overdeveloped.
We went to the Grit restaurant in north Charleston for lunch. I had flounder, butterbeans, and collard greens on grits. The breading for their flounder was the best I’ve ever eaten. All the food was well-seasoned. It’s a noisy, crowded place, and the woman at the counter got my order wrong, but I didn’t complain. I ordered fried hominy instead of collard greens, but she probably couldn’t hear me.
The Coot Restaurant Bar and Grill is conveniently located on Edisto Beach.
I ate a flounder sandwich. Flounder has a good fish flavor.
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”
The Congaree National Park, located near Columbia, South Carolina, is the largest remaining bottomland forest in Southeastern North America and has the largest trees east of the Mississippi. It’s mostly a swamp and hosts an abundance of aquatic species of wildlife. I follow Friends of the Congaree on my Facebook page, and recently they posted photos of a fish survey they took. They put the fish in aquariums on display. They found over 6 species.
Location of Congaree National Park.
This tank held freshwater shrimp, warmouth sunfish, dollar sunfish, pirate perch, piedmont darter, and mosquitofish. I once caught a freshwater shrimp with a net when I was trying to capture crayfish.
Bluegill, striped sunfish, madtom, and crayfish.The aquarium pictured above this holds a spotted sunfish.
The pirate perch (Aphredodurus sayanus) prefers still, clear, warm water. They get their name because they will eat all the smaller fish in a tank. In the wild they mostly eat insect larva, glass shrimp, worms, and smaller fish. This species has an unusual anatomical feature–its anus is next to its throat. They like to hide from predators under riverbanks formed by tree roots. They grow up to 5.5 inches long.
The warmouth (Lepomis gulasus) is a species of sunfish in the Centrarchidae family. They are a popular game fish that grows between 6-15 inches long. They are good for pan-frying and taste better than largemouth bass. They eat insects, crayfish, and minnows. Every spring they make nests in gravel, and the males defend the nests from cannibalistic females. They can hybridize with green sunfish, bluegills, black crappies, and even largemouth bass.
The dollar sunfish (l. marginatus) is a small species of sunfish that grows to just 4-5 inches long. They feed upon detritus, algae, and insects. Like other species of sunfish, the males defend the nests.
Madtoms (Nocturus sp.) are small catfish that grow to 3-5 inches long. There are 29 species. They have venomous spines. Their diet includes crayfish and fish.
Mosquito fish (Gambusia sp.) are small fish growing to about 2 inches long. They are a beneficial species because they eat mosquito larva, and they’ve been introduced into many areas outside of their natural range in order to control mosquito populations. There are over 40 species.
The redfin pickerel (Esox americanus) is a predatory ambush species that prefers clear shallow water. It’s an active predator that hides in the weeds and rapidly bursts from cover to catch other fish. They grow to between 7-15 inches long.
Redfin pickerel.
Another redfin pickerel. The red fins are more pronounced on some individuals than others.
The fish survey in the Congaree National Park also collected bluegills, spotted sunfish, piedmont darters, and golden shiners. The latter species is not native to the park but was introduced by fishermen as bait.
I was quite surprised when I learned there are no known cases of man-eating hammerhead sharks. Facebook algorithms inundate my feed with numerous nature-oriented posts, and when I came across this fact, I couldn’t believe it. I consulted Google AI, and the results confirmed this fact. Hammerhead sharks have been responsible for 18 unprovoked attacks against humans but no confirmed fatalities. Great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarron), the largest hammerhead species, reach lengths of 20 feet and feed upon bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) –a species that is a confirmed man-eater. Great hammerheads are a dangerous species but ordinarily do not attack people.
There are 9-11 species of hammerhead sharks. Taxonomists don’t agree on the number.
Great hammerheads are a dangerous species but don’t ordinarily attack people.I don’t respect the intelligence of anyone who would attempt this stupid stunt.
Scalloped hammerheads don’t grow as large as great hammerheads.
Google AI’s list of shark attacks vastly undercounts the incidents, according to other sources I found on the web. Google AI admits it may be in error sometimes.
There are 9-11 species of hammerhead sharks–the uncertain number indicates a dispute among taxonomists. Genetic evidence suggests hammerheads diverged from other sharks about 20 million years ago, but some believe they may have begun diverging as early as the Eocene over 33 million years ago. Hammerhead shark teeth, dating to the Pleistocene, are commonly found.
The odd shape of the hammerhead is known as cephalofoil, and it serves several useful functions. It gives the sharks 360-degree vision, especially helpful when hunting prey. The hammerhead gives the sharks better electro sensory perception–another advantage–and they actually use their heads to pin prey to the ocean floor. This is useful when they prey upon stingrays, a species that normally hides in the sand on the ocean bottom.
While researching information for this blog, I found a wide discrepancy between Google AI and other sources on the total number of shark attack incidents and deaths. I counted the total number of fatal shark attacks on Google AI, and it was 124 since 1580. Wikipedia reports 459 fatalities just between 1958-2016. Wikipedia is likely more accurate in this case. There’s something wrong with Google AI’s information retrieval. Both use the International Shark Attack Files. Curiously, when I asked the question a slightly different way, Google AI mentions several of the more famous shark attack incidents in history, including the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945 when 859 sailors were eaten by sharks (more than the total in history from a previous search result). These numbers don’t include many 3rd world countries where some fatalities may go unreported.
3 species of sharks are responsible for most shark attack fatalities. Great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) prey upon marine mammals and occasionally mistake humans for their normal prey. Bull sharks can survive in fresh water and often swim far up rivers. Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) are another confirmed man eater, perhaps because they will scavenge just about anything. Oceanic white tips (Carcharhinus longimamus) may be responsible for more fatalities than are known because they attack shipwreck and plane crash survivors who are never found. Bronze whaler sharks (C. brachyurus), so named because they used to congregate around whales killed by whalers, have been known to attack and kill men as well.
The corruption of the Trump Administration is sickening. Trump has used the office of the Presidency to enrich his family by as much as $10 billion dollars, just since he won re-election less than 2 years ago. As soon as he won the election, he founded a cryptocurrency business to profit from his victory. Trump has clearly violated the emoluments clause of the constitution, but the Founding Fathers gave us no mechanism to enforce the clause. The corruption of the Trump Administration negatively impacts the environment directly. One example was on display last week. A committee of unethical jerks, known as the God Squad, overruled Congress and decided oil and gas companies can be exempt from Endangered Species Act regulations because it was a matter of national security. It’s simply an excuse to increase the profits of oil and gas companies who now won’t have to spend money complying with environmental regulations. The oil companies weren’t even asking for this reprieve. The ruling has absolutely nothing to do with national security. The U.S. produces plenty of oil and gas, and there is no shortage of these products that endanger national security. The committee made up a ridiculous excuse, and they can’t even explain how national security was threatened.
The God Squad consists of Pete Hegseth (a rapist and acting Secretary of Defense), Dan Driscoll (Secretary of the Army), Brooke Rollins (Secretary of Agriculture), Doug Burgum (Secretary of the Interior), Lee Zeldin (Director of the Environmental Protection Agency), Pierre Yared (head of the Council of Economic Advisors), and Neil Jacobs (Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Lee Zeldin has taken $269,000 in bribes from oil and gas companies. Doug Burgum has taken $312,000 in bribes from oil and gas companies. Brooke Rollins is a professional lobbyist. Pierre Yared has no experience with environmental issues. Hegseth is a former talking shithead for Fox News. Neil Jacobs is a total Trump ass-kisser. He was the official responsible for “Sharpiegate”–the scandal that occurred when Trump insisted Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama and drew a Sharpie arrow on a map. There was no meteorological data that supported Trump’s false claim, but everyone knows Trump is never supposed to be wrong. So, Jacobs released a memo supporting the errant claim. The agency reprimanded him, but Trump promoted him to Director when he won a 2nd term.
This decision likely means the extinction of Rice’s whale (Balaenoptera ricei). Little is known about this species of whale. It wasn’t named as a distinct species until 2019 when a dead specimen washed up in the Everglades National Park and could be described in the scientific literature, though scientists who published a genetic study recognized it was a distinct species in 2014. It’s also known as the Gulf of Mexico whale where it lives year-round. Scientists don’t even know what it eats, but they suspect it feeds upon deep sea fish, such as lantern fish and hatchet fish. There are only 51 known individuals left, and its population has declined because of oil rig activity, not whaling. The population declined by 22% following the Deep Water Horizon oil spill of 2010. The exemption to regulations means oil companies will be allowed to dump as much trash as they want into the ocean. I can’t understand how not dumping trash in the ocean endangers national security. It’s an absurd stretch. Even more hazardous to whales is that the noise from oil rig activities will no longer be regulated. Whales depend upon echolocation for survival. Seismic air surveys can produce over 235 decibels 24 hours a day for months. Drilling operations and construction of new rigs are very noisy as well. The exemption threatens sperm whales, sea turtles, and manatees too. The ruling will be challenged in court. It is dictatorial and ignores constitutional checks and balances.
The “God Squad’s decision likely means the extinction of Rice’s whale and will kill endangered sea turtles, manatees, and sperm whales.
The Interior Secretary is a crooked scumbag.
The Defense Secretary is an incompetent right-wing idiot who Trump picked because he is impressed with Fox News talking shitheads.
I despise Pete Hegseth. He’s a former Fox News talking shithead. He wrongly blames DEI programs for reducing military preparedness, despite a total lack of evidence to support this belief. I don’t know how DEI became such a dirty word. It just means equal opportunity and none of the shitheads against it can explain their opposition to equal opportunity without exposing their racism, sexism, and homophobia. He’s overseen the restoration of Confederate traitor’s names to our military bases–an embarrassing step backwards. He’s communicated top secret information over unsecured lines–an act that would put the average government worker in jail. Changing the name of the Defense Department to the War Department is silly and pointlessly provocative. Contrary to popular opinion, I support the war against Iran, but Trump did it on a whim without strategic planning. Hegseth has no understanding of strategy either. Trump’s entire cabinet consists of greedy, heartless bastards.
Reference:
Eisner, C.
“U.S. Exempts Oil Industry from Protecting Gulf Animals for National Security”
I’m sorry to give this opinion, but I believe the right whale (Eubalanea glacialis) will become extinct within the next 100 years. The right whale is so named, because it was the most valuable whale to kill when whaling was an important industry, and therefore it was the right one to hunt for whalers. People used to use whale oil to light their homes. There are only ~380 of these long-lived but slow reproducing species left, and an average of 2.4 are known to be killed by collisions with ships every year. The number killed but not reported may be 3X that. The numbers don’t add up, and I don’t see how this species will ever recover. They wouldn’t be the first species of whale to be wiped out by man. Although gray whales still occur in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic population was extirpated centuries ago, and a new study determined when this happened.
Right whales were the right whales to kill because they provided the most oil to light people’s homes, until Edison improved the electric light bulb.
Areas where specimens of gray whale bones were found that were used in the below referenced study.
Strange as it may seem, huge gray whales subsist on tiny invertebrates like these that they suck and strain out of muddy ocean bottoms.
Gray whales were extirpated from the Atlantic Ocean between 1150 AD-1350 AD, but some stragglers have crossed the north polar ice cap from the Pacific Ocean, since the ice cap has been melting more and more. They haven’t re-established a breeding population yet.
Up close view of a gray whale.
Scientists radiocarbon-dated 84 specimens of gray whales from different sites including those from Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Morocco. Some specimens could be identified based on the identification of the bones, but fragments of bones had to be identified using chemical methods. Some specimens were from archaeological sites while others were from paleontological sites. Overall, they looked at 190 specimens from the European side of the Atlantic and 18 from the American side. The extirpation of the gray whale from both sides of the Atlantic is evidence Europeans were fishing off the North American coast almost 1000 years ago. The scientists who published this study concluded gray whales were extirpated by medieval whalers between 1150 AD-1350 AD. There are historical records of gray whale sightings as late as the 1700’s in the northwestern North Atlantic, but this was likely a remnant population that died out.
Gray whales are a migratory species that breed in warm ocean waters and migrate to colder waters to give birth to their calves. They migrate along shallow coastal routes, and medieval whalers likely ambushed these migrations. This is how I believe Paleoindians wiped out several megafauna species during the end of the Pleistocene. They ambushed and eliminated whole migrating herds.
Gray whales feed by sucking in mud from the ocean bottom. They expel the mud through baleen, a mesh-like structure made from keratin–the same material that makes up hair and fingernails. The baleen helps retain the small invertebrates that sustain the huge whales. Their extirpation altered habitats because they were no longer disturbing the ocean floor. These disturbances probably benefited some species but were detrimental to others.
Gray whales may return to the Atlantic Ocean. The north polar ice cap is melting, and some stragglers from the Pacific Ocean have been able to cross the open water to the Atlantic. Whether a permanent breeding population gets re-established remains to be seen.
Reference:
Van de, Kurk, Y.; F. Sikstrom, A. Kreutz, H. Bakke
“Dating the First Historic Extirpation of a Whale Species: The Demise of the Gray Whale (Eschichtius robustus) in the Eastern North Atlantic”
There are 8 species of small tropical deer that inhabit Central and South America. Although they are all referred to as brocket deer, some species are not closely related to each other and actually belong to different genera. The list of brocket deer species includes the red brocket deer (Mazama americana), the Merida brocket deer (M. merida), the pygmy brocket deer (M. nana), the little red brocket deer (M. rufina), the Mexican red brocket deer (M. temama), the brown or gray brocket deer (Subulo gouzoubera), the Yucatan brocket deer (Odocoielus pandera), and the Amazon brocket deer (Passalites nemorivagus). Some species are endemic to just 1 small region. The Meridan brocket deer lives in 1 small region of the Venezuelan Mountains. The Mexican and Yucatan brocket deer have limited ranges in Mexico. However, the red brocket deer is widespread.
The red brocket deer probably is good tasting venison because they primarily eat fruit.
The red brocket is a widespread species. Other species of brocket deer have much more limited ranges.
The Yucatan brocket deer is related to North American white-tailed deer. Unlike red brocket deer, their diet consists almost entirely of leaves.
A recent study of tooth wear from 357 specimens of all 8 species found dietary differences among them. The red brocket deer primarily eats fruit, though if there isn’t any available, they will eat fungi, leaves, and shoots. They can co-exist with another fruit-eating species, the gray brocket deer, because these 2 species have different ecological niches. Gray brocket deer prefer dry open forests, while red brocket deer prefer dense moist tropical forests. These species of deer don’t spread the seeds in their dung–the seeds get digested. The Mexican brocket deer is a mixed feeder. The Yucatan and Merida brocket deer almost exclusively eat leaves.
The summer coats of North American white-tailed deer have a reddish color, much like these species of tropical deer. I think the summer coats are much more attractive than their dull winter coats.
Reference:
Martinez-Polonco, M.
“Dietary Ecology of Neotropical Brocket Deer: Evidence from Mesowear and Microwear Analysis”
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology March 2026
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”
GeorgiaBeforePeople 