#paleolithic megafauna

[rebeccathenaturalist]

I took time out today to go to the OMSI Science Festival; last year I was a presenter, but this time around I just went for the fun of it since I was so impressed by the 2023 event. This year had an equally great mix of informational booths featuring everything from science camps for kids to a chance to see live reptiles up close and personal.

I got to say hi to my friend Simran Gleason, a very talented oil painter specializing in plein aire work. Each year of the festival he's captured moments from the event on his canvases, and it never ceases to amaze me how well he uses color to portray the energy of a given vignette as it happens. I also dropped in at the Rewild Portland table to say hey and check out all the cool handmade bone and stone tools, woven baskets, and other neat artifacts they've created. They're one of the organizations I recommend to my foraging students who want more opportunities to explore the outdoors and what it has to offer.

I think the highlight of my day was getting to meet paleoartist Mark Hallett in person. I was first introduced to his work in the 1980s that he did for Zoobooks (Dinosaurs and Wild Dogs) and National Geographic, but this was my first time getting to see originals in person, including a VERY cool 3-D, mixed media sculpture of a saber toothed cat head with fur on one side and the musculature exposed on the other.

I just had to have a copy of his book On the Prowl: In Search of Big Cat Origins. It's the right combination of crunchy factual goodness getting into the evolution of feline megafauna, but written with an inviting voice--and, of course, accompanied by those incredibly rich illustrations Hallett is known for. I was very excited to get my copy signed, and I mourned the fact that my childhood Zoobooks were long gone as I'd love to have those signed as well.

The OMSI Science Festival will be happening tomorrow (9/15) too; highly recommend it for anyone in the Portland, OR area.

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 61: Middle Ages and Much Earlier

These Questions are the result of suggestions from the previous iteration.

This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct grouping.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration.

[thegreenwolf]

I missed making paleoart Breyer customs, so have a pair of prehistoric pronghorns! I've transformed a Breyer pronghorn into Stockoceros, complete with new horns. Meanwhile, Breyer's Alpine goat has been extensively reworked into a Capromeryx. These two were incredibly fun to work on, and I love how they turned out! You can find them both at https://www.etsy.com/shop/thegreenwolf?section_id=23514524.

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Titanis (Titanis walleri)

(Photo from Florida Museum of Natural History)

Conservation Status- Extinct

Habitat- North America

Estimated Size (Weight/Length)- 150 kg; 2 m tall

Diet- Mammals

Time Period- Pliocene; Early Pleistocene

Cool Facts- Titanis was one of the larger terror birds that stalked the plains of North America for thousands of years. Incapable of flight, Titanis most likely relied on its long legs to outrun its prey. While a skull has never been found, it is assumed that Titanis had the massive, ax-like beak other terror birds of the time period had, leading to interpretations of what its complete skeleton may look like. Due to having excellent movement in their neck, it is believed that Titanis would chase down its prey and batter the animal to death with its massive beak. Titanis most likely went extinct due to competition from new predators, especially bears and big cats.

Rating- 11/10 (Could outrun a horse.)

[slimynematode]

THE ELECTRONIC YET PALEOLITHIC GARDEN OF EDEN BEARING FRUIT UNTOUCHED BY OVERGROWN MEGAFAUNA OF FUTURES PAST

[peregrinethegryphon]

Ok, enough medieval/Roman/Scandinavian fantasy settings, I want a paleolithic fantasy setting. No metalworking, just spears and clubs and rocks. No castles, just caves and huts. Extinct megafauna instead of dragons. No elves or dwarves, but Neanderthals and Denisovans. You can still have Hobbits. Doesn’t have to be 100% accurate. Throw Erectus in there, fuck it, make up your own Homo species.

[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.

[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

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Help I’m a Paleolithic protohominid trying to hunt Cenozoic megafauna but I’m dummy thick and the resonant clapping of my fatty pads keeps alerting them to my position

[bisonclan]

Welcome to the Tundra Steppe…

Start at the beginning HERE

Set during the twilight of the most recent ice age, we find a clan of strange, small cats eking out a life in the unforgiving wilderness of Paleolithic Turtle Island. Having left their ancestral home in the mountains following a calamity, BisonClan now fights to adapt to the vast grasslands of the steppe. With danger coming from megafauna, rival big cats, and even within the clan, it remains to be seen if the stars will guide them to safety.

CURRENT ARC: Following The Rabbit

This comic will contain canon typical violence to the warrior cats series, including animal death and injury. Pages containing such will be tagged. Other such things will be tagged as needed.

I aim to keep the fauna and flora accurate to the time period, but I'm no expert. This is mainly a thing I'm doing for fun. That being said, feel free to share any cool Ice Age facts you think would be helpful for the story! That being said I’m being more loosey goosey with the main cat genes/evolution :P

The comic, of course, is based on my current ClanGen run and has been inspired by all the other amazing ClanGen comics out there!

This comic is something I'm doing for fun, with a plan of a page a week. That being said I've got a day job and there may be unexpected breaks . I'll do my best to make a note ahead of time. Art style and layout may vary, as I'm also using this comic as a way to push my art skills.

I welcome asks about characters/events/etc! An FAQ will be updated as the blog goes

I understand that I cannot filter everyone who reads my works, but know the author is not kind to TERFs/transmisogynists/transphobes, "proshippers", zoophiles, Zionists, and other similarly flavored scum.

[v-0w0-v]

tag game (tagged by @hillcrypt, thank you!)

rules: tag 9 people you'd like to catch up with or know better!

favorite color: no favorite color but my favorite palate is primary colors !! (ideally two bright and one muted) if i had to pick a favorite color it would probably be olive green or dandelion yellow or muted navy blue or dark red or or or or or

last song: AM 180 by Grandaddy, im trying to learn it on guitar :)

currently reading: finally got my copy of left hand of darkness back from my apartment so im hoping to finish that soon!!!

currently watching: loudermilk, cos my AA friend told me to watch it, it's pretty fun, mistook the main character for the actor from creep but i was Wrong, might watch Scream tonight too cos i work at halloween world and have never seen it before

currently craving: philly cheesesteak...... philly cheesesteak my beloved......

coffee or tea: iced green tea with lavender and honey :)

hobby to try: i have a LOT of hobbies that id like to pick up again but one that has escaped my Start-Then-Get-Distracted cycle is needlefelting

current au: not really a fandom boy but imagine if paleolithic megafauna were still around...... that would be neat

tagging: @tomeoftheseer, @femmeboyhooters, @my-peanus-horts, @son-of-spiders, @ffluoresce (whenever u return from hiatus!), @funguybi , @sillywormz , @bugs-are-buddies , @theswordwizard , and any other beloved mutuals who see this!!

[satvrnixne]

I still love the concept of prehistoric humans living alongside prehistoric animals very much anachronistically and I’m surprised I don’t see this vibe played around with more in fantasy settings. Give me paleolithic or even neolithic inspired elves and orcs riding around on dinosaurs and megafauna.

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 54: Ancient World and Earlier

If you could travel through time, but only to see something for Research or for Fun, not to change anything, what would you pick? Yes, you may have a Babel Fish in your ear to translate.

These Questions are the result of suggestions a the previous iteration. This category may include suggestions made too late to fall into the correct earlier time grouping. In some cases a culture lasted a really long time and I grouped them by whether it was likely the later or earlier grouping made the most sense with the information I had.

Please add new suggestions below if you have them for future consideration. All cultures and time periods welcome.

[psychoetheric]

trying to imagine right now being an early paleolithic human migrating out on a land bridge and coming and making a home in an area thats straight up never had hominids in it before. that shit must have been so choice, like these damn megafauna have no clue im about to kill their asses

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Andrewsarchus (Andrewsarchus mongoliensis)

(Photo from American Museum of Natural History)

Conservation Status- Extinct

Habitat- Mongolia

Estimated Size (Weight/Length)- 1 tonne; 5 m

Diet- Large mammals; Carrion

Time Period- Late Eocene

Cool Facts- The Andrewsarchus may be one of the most mysterious animals of the late Eocene. With only one skull found in 1923, it has been estimated that Andrewsarchus is the largest terrestrial carnivore in history. Being the size of a horse and as fast as one, this hoofed predator could take down the other megafauna that roamed ancient Mongolia with ease. Andrewsarchus sports enlarged secondary canines that most likely would have been deadly with a crushing bite force thanks to its elongated snout. Comparing Andrewsarchus to other mesonychids, paleontologists have assumed that they had relatively short legs for their long body and massive head.

Rating- 12/10 (Just wait until we find a complete one.)

[stoportotouch]

oh for sure I want to give him more problems, you're right. if he's your princess then out of respect I will keep my mind open to his redemption or suffering, whichever comes first. also finished episode 5 and I physically gasped when this thing opened up blanky's leg. took me by surprise. and it really looks like a bear with a little fucked up face doesn't it. I admire it's devotion to fucking up the english.

poor monkey is gonna get lead poisoning :(

i feel like for him suffering probably Counts As redemption. which is unfortunate for him but great for me and my Imagination. like, clearly so far in the closet that he doesn't realise there's a door but he still went to THE homosocial environment. something is so wrong with him (i say incredibly lovingly while feeding him soup).

and GOD yeah the bear. but also Extremely Fucking Cool Fight Scene there in the rigging. they clearly Loved choreographing that. it looks kind of like a short-faced bear which i also like because i Do love a paleolithic megafauna.

and alas. the monky. :(