#Ice Age megafauna

[arthurdrakoni]

A Different Flesh is an alternate history novel that asks what it means to be human. This is my review.

A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove is an alternate history novel that imagines a world where Ice Age megafauna, and Homo Erectus, never died out. This is my review.

So, I’ve got a review of an alternate history novel I think people around here might enjoy. It does include some, albeit a bit might, speculative evolution elements.

A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove is a collection of short stories set in the same universe. In the world of A Different Flesh, the ancestors of the Native Americans never crossed the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age. However, Homo Erectus did cross into the Americas. Thus, when the Europeans discover the Americas, they don't find any Native American civilizations, but they do find tribes of Homo Erectus, whom they refer to as sims. Also, the Ice Age megafauna of the Americas never went extinct, so the Europeans also discover a land full of woolly mammoths, sabertooth cats, giant ground sloths, and giant armadillos among other things.

The stories follow the history of the Federated Commonwealths of America, this world's equivalent of the United States of America. Before the start of each story, the mood is set with an excerpt from a book about the history of the FCA. It also provides great details about the history of this world that don't quite make it into the stories. The excerpts also chronicle the relationship between humans and sims.

Harry Turtledove says that he got the idea for this series when he read an article by the late great paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould pondered what might have happened if John Smith and the Jamestown colonists had discovered Australopithecus rather than Native Americans in Virginia. Gould concluded that it would not have ended well for Australopithecus. Turtledove certainly seems to have come to the same conclusion. One thing I think he did well was that, though he wrote the sims as sympathetic, he never made them too anthropomorphized. You can definitely see similarities between humans and sims, as is to be expected, but at the same time sims clearly act and think differently than humans.

I can safely say that this book was worth the wait. I loved the structure of this book being seven short story set in different eras of this alternate worlds. I wish there were more books that employed that sort of structure. I’m a sucker for prehistoric animals, and I’m a sucker for books about alternate colonizations of the Americas. As such, A Different Flesh was like a match made in heaven for me.

In terms of speculative evolution, things are a bit light admittedly. The Ice Age megafauna aren’t too dissimilar to the ones in our world. Although, the presence of an obvious “missing link” does lead to the theory of evolution being developed in the 1660s rather than the 1860s.

The depiction of Homo Erectus also shows some age. They’re shown as incapable to human speech, but they are capable of learning sign language. At the time the book was written, 1988, this was the prevailing view among paleontologists, but I believe subsequent findings suggest that Homo Erectus was indeed capable or verbal speech of a sort.

Still, it is a very entertaining novel exploring the history of an alternate America, and the relationship between humans and sims. It also asks the question what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be sentient? The sims represent a moral grey area; more intelligent than an animal, but not quite at human levels. So, where do they fit in human society? What rights should they have? All very interesting and thought provoking stuff.

Have you read A Different Flesh? If so, what did you think?

Link to the full review on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2019/04/book-review-different-flesh-by-harry.html?m=0

[the-nebula-sys]

Who else is mourning the loss of the aurochsen

[incognito-princess]

I'm going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science tomorrow to see the Snowmass Ice Age Megafauna find!!

[palaeosinensis]

Two cave art inspired Megaloceros bucks creating their own thunder in the grass. This is a subsection of something bigger I was trying, but this is lovely on its own.

The noise and swirling faint patterns are anti-AI measures and are not present on the actual art print.

[thesilicontribesman]

Mammoth Tooth, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire

[avanii]

A second Beast of Basalt, taking inspiration from columnar basalt like before, but also the phenomenon of flood basalt. The tail is composed of a'a lava, and makes that clinkery, glassy sound when it gets swung! I painted this with acrylic inks.

[pleistocene-pride]

Happy Ice Age Week: Castoroides better known as the giant beaver, is an extinct genus of beaver that lived throughout North America during the Pleistocene to early holocene some 2.1 million to 11,000 years ago. The first remains of castoroides known to science were consisting of a skull was unearthed from a peat bog near Nashport Ohio in 1837 during the digging of the Ohio Canal. These remains would be formally described by American geologist John Wells Foster in 1838, who named the animal castoroides meaning “beaver like” in latin. Since then hundreds of castoroides specimens have been found from Alaska and Canada on down to Florida, being especially concentrated around the midwestern United States in states near the Great Lakes, particularly Illinois and Indiana. Today two species are considered valid: C. ohioensis & C. dilophidus. Reaching some 6 to 7.5ft (1.8 to 2.3m) in length and 170 to 275lbs (77 to 125kgs) in weight, Casteroides was the largest known rodent in North America during the Pleistocene and the largest known beaver. The hind feet of the giant beaver were much larger than in modern beavers, while the hind legs were shorter. The tail was longer and may not have been paddle-shaped as in modern beavers. The shape of Castoroides large incisors would have made it much less effective at cutting down trees than living beavers, meaning that they likely didn’t build damns and lodges in the same manner. In life castoroides would have been heavily reliant on lakes and wetlands where it would both avoid predators and feed upon primarily aquatic plants. Remains of the giant beaver, along with human artifacts and the remains of other megafauna from several sites shows that there were some interactions between Paleo-Indians and Casteroides. Many native tribes such as the Innu, Mississaugas, Algonquin, & Anishinaabe all feature giant beavers in their traditional mythology, which many believe is evidence of there ancestors interaction with Castoroides.

Art used can be found at the following links:

[littlebeasties-art]

My favorite extinct megafauna 🌿

[hylianengineer]

Trying to watch documentaries about your field of study is so frustrating. Yes I know we have a common ancestor with chimpanzees; why did you take ten minutes to explain that?! Everyone knows that! Right? Right!? Of course chimps are built for climbing but tell me why! Are you gonna talk about their shoulder joints or aren’t you? Yes, yes, the hand-feet, we’ve all seen them. Shoulder joints are way more interesting. Shut up about the hand-feet.

[woodsfae]

I did not pet the fluffy cows. But I did sing to them, and some of them even seemed to notice.

[troythecatfish]

[covenawhite66]

An international team of researchers examined the environmental DNA of mammoth remains and more than 1,500 arctic plants to conclude that a wetter climate quickly changed the landscape from tundra grassland steppe to forested wetlands that could not support many of these big grazing animals, driving mammoths to extinction as recently as 3,900 years ago.

Sedimentary deposits are complex. Materials of different ages are routinely buried together. Scientists cannot carbon date DNA.

A unique challenge for environmental DNA (eDNA)-based palaeoecological reconstructions and extinction estimates is that organisms can contribute DNA to sediments long after their death. Recently, Wang et al.1 discovered mammoth eDNA in sediments that are between approximately 4.6 and 7 thousand years (kyr) younger than the most recent mammoth fossils in North America and Eurasia, which they interpreted as mammoths surviving on both continents into the Middle Holocene epoch. Here we present an alternative explanation for these offsets: the slow decomposition of mammoth tissues on cold Arctic landscapes is responsible for the release of DNA into sediments for thousands of years after mammoths went extinct

[palaeosinensis]

Today was a really mixed bag in the casting department. 2.5 molds were ruined which was a LOT of wasted silicone and in both cases the failures were just...unlucky. So I get to remold the gem eyed wolf (not shown) and the Smilodon figurine. The test casts looked GREAT except for the stupid shoulder defect. Cast well right down to the little ears. So I'll sculpt those back on and push the tail back into place and try again. My art has been massively impacted by what amounts to a nervous breakdown over the last several years, but this post is a good example of a whole other reason why my pewter work sometimes just disappears for months. It's a very finicky medium when you're pushing the limits of what gravity casting will allow and sometimes it just sticks out its tongue at you for the sake of it. I have no idea what caused the shoulder defect it just...showed up. Maybe an overheated bubble ripped it. And the wolf mold leaked silicone into the already cured front half ruining it. Thankfully the moving jaw T. rex pendants were coming out like clockwork so I'll have seven of those for sale when I can get another pewter drop together. I love casting in pewter even if it gives me forehead rage veins sometimes.

[thesilicontribesman]

Woolly Rhinoceros Teeth, Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire

[gretasworld]

Cave Bear skull in Ialomita cave monastery, prayer place of Dracula's son.

[pleistocene-pride]

Megatherium known as the giant ground sloth or the megathere is an extinct genus of ground sloth which lived throughout South America from the Pliocene to Pleistocene some 5 million to 12,000 years ago. The first known remains of Megatherium consisting of a mostly complete skeleton were discovered in 1788 by Manuel Torres, on the bank of the Luján River in Argentina. The fossil was shipped to Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid the following year, where it remains. It was reassembled by museum employee Juan Bautista Bru in 1795 and subsequently described by Georges Cuvier in 1796. Cuvier assigned the fossil the scientific name Megatherium americanum from the Greek méga 'great' and theríon 'beast' and americanum being a reference to the Americas. In the centuries to follow dozens of well preserved specimens have been recovered representing some 8 species considered valid: M.‭ ‬americanum‭,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬altiplanicum,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬gallardoi,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬istilarti,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬medinae,‭ ‬M.‭ ‬parodii,‭ and ‬M.‭ ‬sundti which are separated into the two sub-genuses of Megatherium and Pseudomegatherium. With the largest species reaching some 20ft (6m) in length, 7ft (2.1m) tall when on all fours, and 8,400 to 10,100lbs (3,810 to 4580kgs) in weight, megatherium surpassed most modern elephants in size making it not only one of the largest xenathrans but one of the largest mammals known to have ever existed. Megatherium had a robust skeleton with a large pelvic girdle and a broad muscular tail. Its large size enabled it to feed at heights unreachable by other contemporary herbivores. Rising on its powerful hind legs and using its tail to form a tripod, Megatherium could support its massive body weight while using the curved claws on its long forelegs to pull down branches. These large animals likely lived in small groups feeding during the day before spending there nights resting inside of caves and large burrows the animals likely dug using there massive claws. Megatherium became extinct around 12,000 years ago during the Quaternary extinction event, which also claimed most other large mammals throughout the world. The extinction coincides with the settlement of the Americas, and multiple kill sites where M. americanum was slaughtered and butchered, suggesting that human hunting helped caused the sloths extinction.

Art belongs to the following creators:

Megatherium Mother and Baby: Mark Witton https://www.redbubble.com/i/art-board-print/Megatherium-by-MarkWitton/40411556.TR477

Megatherium: Brian Engh

Lost World - Megatherium: Rob Brunette https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3dbQXY