The fossil beds of the Great 

 Plains and other parts of the 

 West contain eloquent proofs of 

 the richness and variety of mam- 

 mal life on this continent at dif- 

 ferent periods in the past. Per- 

 haps the most wonderful of all 

 these ancient faunas was that re- 

 vealed by the bones of birds and 

 mammals which had been trapped 

 in the asphalt pits recently dis- 

 covered in the outskirts of Los 

 Angeles, California. These bones 

 show that prior to the arrival of 

 the present fauna the plains of 

 southern California swarmed 

 with an astonishing wealth of 

 strange birds and beasts (see 

 page 401). 



The most notable of these are 

 •saber-toothed tigers, lions much 

 larger than those of Africa ; 

 .giant wolves ; several kinds of 

 bears, including the huge cave 

 bears, even larger than the gi- 

 gantic brown bears of Alaska; 

 large wild horses ; camels ; bison 

 (unlike our buffalo) ; tiny ante- 

 lope, the size of a fox ; masto- 

 dons, mammoths with tusks 15 

 feet long ; and giant ground sloths ; in 

 addition to many other species, large and 

 small. 



With these amazing mammals were 

 -equally strange birds, including, among 

 numerous birds of prey, a giant vulture- 

 like species (far larger than any condor), 

 peacocks, and many others. 



DID MAN LIVE THEN? 



The geologically recent existence of 

 this now vanished fauna is evidenced by 

 the presence in the asphalt pits of bones 

 of the gray fox, the mountain lion, and 

 -close relatives of the bobcat and coyote, 

 as well as the condor, which still frequent 

 that region, and thus link the past with 

 the present. The only traces of the an- 

 •cient vegetation discovered in these as- 

 phalt pits are a pine and two species of 

 juniper, which are members of the exist- 

 ing flora. 



There is reason for believing that prim- 

 itive man occupied California and other 

 parts of the West during at least the lat- 

 ter part of the period when the fauna of 

 the asphalt pits still flourished. Dr. C. 

 Hart Merriam informs me that the folk- 



Photograph by L. Peterson 

 INTRODUCING A LITTLE BLACK BEAR TO A TITTLE 

 BROWN BEAR AT SEWARD, ALASKA 



"Howdy-do ! I ain't got a bit of use for you !" 

 "What do I care ! You'd better back away, black bear !" 



lore of the locally restricted California 

 Indians contains detailed descriptions of 

 a beast which is unmistakably a bison, 

 probably the bison of the asphalt pits. 



The discovery in these pits of the bones 

 of a gigantic vulturelike bird of prey of 

 far greater size than the condor is even 

 more startling, since the folk-lore of the 

 Eskimos and Indians of most of the tribes 

 from Bering Straits to California and the 

 Rocky Mountain region abound in tales 

 of the "thunder-bird" — a gigantic bird of 

 prey like a mighty eagle, capable of carry- 

 ing away people in its talons. Two such 

 coincidences suggest the possibility that 

 the accounts of the bison and the "thun- 

 der-bird" are really based on the originals 

 of the asphalt beds and have been passed 

 down in legendary history through many 

 thousands of years. 



CAMELS AND HORSES ORIGINATED IN 

 NORTH AMERICA 



Among other marvels our fossil beds 

 reveal the fact that both camels and 

 horses originated in North America. 

 The remains of many widely different 

 species of both animals have been found 



399 



