Excerpts from the Journal of an Expedition to Kentucky in 1750

Dr. Thomas Walker led 5 men on an expedition through the wilds of western Virginia and eastern Kentucky in 1750.  This was 20 years before Daniel Boone hunted and trapped the then Indian territory.  Dr. Walker kept a fascinating if brief journal of his experience.  Lyman Draper included the journal in his manuscript, The Life of Daniel Boone.

I wish I could’ve seen Kentucky in 1750.  Some early explorers reported seeing a thousand animals including bison, elk, deer, bear and flocks of turkeys all within 1 view of a Kentucky prairie landscape–a scene as rich as any on the African plains.  Though not as pristine as it was during the Pleistocene before the Indians, it must have been much more beautiful and impressive than any landscape in today’s America.  I’ve copied excerpts from Dr. Walker’s journal for this blog entry, and I’ve alternated them with my comments (in italics).  Most amusing is the way Dr. Walker sums up incredible adventures in 1 short sentence without any elaboration whatsoever.  

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Thomas Walker’s Journal 1750

Having on the 12th of December last, been employed for a certain consideration to go to the westward in order to discover a proper place for a Settlement, I left my house on the 6th day of March at 10 o’clock in Company with Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson, Colby Chew, Henry Lawless, and John Hughs.  Each man had a horse and we had two  to carry the Baggage.  I lodged this night at Col. Joshua Fry’s in Albemarle, which County includes the Chief of the head branches of James River on the East side of the Blue Ridge.

March 13th.  We went early to William Calloway’s and supplied ourselves with Rum, Thread, and other necessaries and from thence took the Waggon Road leading to wood’s or the New River.  It is not well cleared or beaten yet, but will be a good one with proper management.  This night we lodged in Adam Beard’s low grounds. Beard is an ignorant, brutish fellow, and would have taken us up, had it not been for reason, easily to be suggested.

That last sentence is not clear to me.  I think it means Beard was being inhospitable because he thought they weren’t going to pay him enough for lodging.  Sounds like the exasperated Dr. Walker had to talk him into it.

March 15th.  We went to the great Lick on a Branch of the Staunton and bought corn of Michael Campbell for our horses.  This lick has been one of the best places for game in these parts and would have been of much greater advantage to the Inhabitants than it has been if the Hunters had not killed the Buffaloes for diversion, and the Elks and Deer for their skins.  This afternoon we go to the Staunton where the houses of the Inhabitants had been carryed off with their grain and Fences by the Fresh of last Summer, and lodged at James Robinson’s, the only place I could hear of where they had corn to spare, notwhithstanding the land is such that an industrious man might make 100 barrels a share in a Seasonable year.

Even this early in colonial history, overhunting wiped out the game in some areas.  Salt licks abound in Kentucky, formerly making it a destination for large herds of game.  A Fresh is an archaic term for flood.

March 24th.  We went to Stalmaker’s, helped him raise his house and Camped about a quarter mile below him…

This guys were handy, capable of building a log cabin in a day.

March 27th.  It began to snow in the morning and continued till Noon.  The Land is very hilly from West to North.  Some Snow lies on the tops of the mountains N.W. from us.

How unusual is snow in West Virginia in late March?  A cooler climate did prevail in the 1700′s compared to the present day.

March 31st.  We kept down Reedy Creek to Holston where we measured an Elm 25 feet around 3 feet from the ground.  We saw young Sheldrakes, we went down the River to the north Fork and up the north Fork about a quarter mile to a Ford, then crossed it.  In the Fork between Holstons and the North River, are five Indian Houses built with loggs and covered with Bark, and there were abundance of Bones, some whole Pots and Pans, some broken, and many pieces of mats and Cloth.  On the West side of the North River, is four Indian Houses such as before mentioned.  we went four miles Below the North River and camped on the Bank of Holstons, opposite to a large Indian Fort.

Wow, an elm with a 25 foot circumference, and an abandoned Indian village.  Nice day of exploration.

April ye 1st. The Sabbath.  we saw perch, mullets, and carp in plenty, and caught one of the large Sort of cat fish.  I marked my Name, the day of the month and date of the year on several Beech trees.

No telling what kinds of fish these were because he used familiar English names for American species of fish.

April 2nd.  we left Holston and travelled through small Hills till about Noon, when one of our Horses being choked by eating Reeds too greedily, we stopped having travelled 7 miles.

By reeds he undoubtedly meant bamboo cane which grew abundantly in pre-Colonial Kentucky.  He treated the horses that choked on reeds by giving them a lot of water to wash them down.

April 7th.  We rode 8 miles over Broken Land.  It snowed most of the day.  In the Evening our dogs caught a large He bear, which before we could come up to shoot him had wounded a dog of mine, so that he could not Travel, and we carried him on horseback, till he recovered.

They had many encounters with bears.  Note–it snowed again.

April 12th.  We kept down the Creek 2 miles further, where it meets with a large Branch coming from the South West, and thence runs through the East Ridge making a very good Pass; and a large Buffaloe Road goes from that Fork to the Creek over the West Ridge, which we took and found the Ascent and Descent tollerably easie.  From this Mountain we rode four miles to Beargrass River.  Small Cedar Trees are very plenty on the flat ground nigh the River, and some Bayberry trees on the East side of the River.  on the Banks is some Beargrass.  We kept up the River two miles.  I found some Small pieces of Coal and a great plenty of good yellow Flint.  The water is the most transparent I ever saw.  it is about 70 yards wide.

Herds of buffalo trampled down vegetation and earth into sunken roads as much as 3 feet deep and often 20 yards wide.  Indian paths followed these Buffalo roads.  Today, many state highways follow these same paths.  Coal and flint demonstrate interesting geology.  River waters were clear then, unlike today’s muddy rivers.

April 13th. We went four miles to a large Creek, which we called Cedar Creek, being a branch of Beargrass, and from thence Six miles to Cave Gap, the land being Levil.  On the North side of the Gap is a large spring, which falls very fast, and just above the spring is a small Entrance to a large Cave, which the Spring runs through, and there is a constant Stream of Cool air issuing out.  The Spring is sufficient to turn a mill.  Just at the foot of the Hill is a Laurel thicket, and the Spring Water runs through it.  On the South side is a plain Indian Road, on the top of the Ridge are Laurel Trees marked with crosses, others Blazed and several figures on them.  As I went down on the Other Side, I soon came to some Laurel in the head of a Branch.  A Beech stands on the left hand, on which I cut my name.  This Gap may be seen at a considerable distance, and there is no other, that I know of, except one about two miles to the North of it, which does not appear to be So low as the other.  The Mountain on the North Side of the Gap is avery Steep and Rocky, but on the South side it is not so.  We called it Steep Ridge .  At the foot of the hill on the North West Side we came to a Branch, that made a great deal of flat Land.  We kept down it 2 miles.  Several other Branches Coming in to make it a large Creek, and we called it Flat Creek.  We camped on the Bank where we found very good Coal.  I did not Se(e) any Lime Stone beyond this Ridge.  We rode 13 miles this day.

This is a more detailed entry than others.  I think he’s describing a gap through the mountains to aid  future settlers.

April 16th.  Rain.  I made a Pair of Indian Shoes, those I brought out being bad.

These guys had to be a jack of all trades.  In additions to making their own shoes, they could build cabins and canoes in about a day.

April 19th.  We left the River but in four miles we came on it again at the Mouth of Licking Creek, which we went up and down another.  In the Fork of Licking Creek is a Lick much used by Buffaloes and many Large Roads lead to it.  This afternoon Ambrose Powell was bit by a Bear on the Knee.  We rode 7 miles this day.

This is my favorite passage.  Oh yeah, and by the way, a bear bit Ambrose on the knee.  No elaboration whatsoever.  I wish he’d taken some literary license and added some exciting details.  Like what happened to the bear?

April 20th. we kept down the Creek 2 miles to the River again.  It appears not any wider here than on the mouth of Cl0ver Creek but much deeper.  I thought it proper to Cross the River and began a bark Canoe.

April 21st.  We finished the Canoe and tryed her.  About noon it began to thunder, lighten, hail, and rain prodigiously and continued for two hours.

They made a canoe out of bark in a day.  No mention is made of the shelter I’m sure they made to stay out of the rain.

April 23rd.  Having carried our Baggage over in the Bark Conoe, and Swam our horses, we all crossed the River.  Then Ambrose Powell, Colby Chew, and I departed, Leaving the others to provide and salt some Bear, build an house, and plant some Peach Stones and Corn.  We travelled about 12 miles and encamped on Crooked Creek.  The mountains are very small heareabouts and here is a great deal of flat Land.  We got through the Coal today.

Well, this answers the question of what happened to the bear that bit Ambrose.  I guess they were contemplating making this a regular stop, if they planted corn and peach seeds.  I wonder how the peaches did without any human care.  Unlike most fruits which are mutants that need grafting, peach trees will grow similar quality fruit as their parents, and they can produce in as little as 3 years.

April 26th.  The River is 150 yards wide and appears to be navigable from this place almost to the mouth of Clover Creek…On the Lower Side of the mouth of the Creek is an Ash mark’d T.W., a Red Oak A.P., a white hiccory C.C. besides several Trees blazed Several ways with 3 Chops over each blaze.  we went up the North Side of the River 8 miles, and Camped on a Small Branch.  A Bear Broke one of my Dogs forelegs.

They initialed their names on the trees. I’m sure these trees are long gone. Initialing trees was a way of proving where they were in case they got kidnapped by Indians or killed.  I’m surprised about how aggressive bears were.

April 28th.  We kept up the River to our Company whom we found all well, but the lame Horse was as bad as we left him, and another had been bit in the Nose by a Snake.  I rub’d the wounds with Bear’s oil, and gave him a drench of the same and another of the decotion of Rattle Snake root some time after.  The People I left had built a House 12 by 8, clear’d and broke up some ground, and planted Corn and Peach Stones.  They also had killed Several Bears and cured the meat.  This day Colby Chew and his Horse fell down the Bank.  I Bled and gave him Volatile drops and he soon recovered.

Physicians still practiced the medieval treatment of bleeding.  Colby Chew recovered despite the archaic treatment.

May 1st.  Another Horse being bit, I applyed Bears Oil as before mentioned…

The rattlesnake population must’ve been very high.  The rocky country is favorable habitat for them because it provides plenty of denning areas.

May 7th.  We went down Tomlinson’s River the Land being very broken and our way embarrassed by trees that had been blown down 2 years ago.

This is a landscape not often seen but common then.  Lumber companies often harvest storm blown trees.

May 12.  Under the Rock is a Soft Kind of Stone almost like Allum in taste; below it a layer of Coal about 12 inches thick and white Clay under that., I called the Run Allum Creek…

Interesting geology.  Probably been stripmined since.

May 17th.  Laurel and Ivy are very plenty and the Hill still very steep.  The Woods have been burnt some years past and are now very thick, the Timber almost all kill’d.  We Camped on a Branch of Naked Creek…

May 26th.  We kept down the Branch almost to the River, and up a Creek, and then along a Ridge till our Dogs roused a large Buck Elk, which we followed down to a Creek.  He killed Ambrose Powell’s Dog in the Chase, and we named the Run Tumbler’s Creek, the Dog being of that Name.

Poor Ambrose.  First bitten by a bear, then his dog gets stomped by an elk.

May 30th.  We went to the head of the Branch we lay on 12 miles.  A Shower of Rain fell this day.  The Woods are burnt fresh about here and are the only fresh burnt Woods we have seen these Six Weeks.

The Indians burned the woods regularly to improve habitat for game.  It was unusual for Dr. Walker to have travelled so long through country that hadn’t been burned lately.  I wonder, if the local Indians had suffered a smallpox epidemic, and there weren’t that many setting fires here.

May 31st.  We crossed 2 Mountains and camped just by a Wolf’s Den.  They were very impudent and after they had been twice shot at, they kept howling about the Camp.  It Rained til Noon this day.

June 4th.  I blazed several trees four ways on the outside of the low Grounds by a Buffalo Road, and marked my Name on Several Beech trees…We left the River about 10 o’Clock and got to Falling Creek, and went up till 5 in the Afternoon when a very black Cloud appearing, we turn’d out our Horses, got tent Poles up, and were just stretching the Tent, when it began to rain and hail, and was succeeded by a violent Wind which Blew down our Tent and a great many Trees about it several large ones within 30 yards of the tent.  we all left the place in confusion and ran different ways for shelter.  After the Storm was over, we met at the Tent and found all safe.

Sounds like they got caught in a downburst.

June 13th.  We are much hindered by the Gust and a shower of Rain about Noon.  Game is very scarce here, and the mountains very bad, the tops of the Ridges being so covered with Ivy and the sides so steep and stony, that we were obliged to cut our way through with our Tomohawks.

June 15th-16th. We got on a large Creek where Turkey are plenty and some Elks. we went a hunting and killed 3 Turkeys.  Hunted and killed 3 Bears and some Turkeys.

June 19th.  We got to Laurel Creek early this morning and met so impudent a Bull Buffaloe that we were obliged to shoot him, or he would have been amongst us…

Dr. Walker considered the wolves and buffaloes as impudent, if they didn’t flee the vicinity when people appeared.

June 20th…my riding Horse was bit by a Snake this day, and having no Bear’s Oil I rub’d the place with a piece of fat meat, which had the desired effect.

June 21st. We found the Level Nigh the Creek so full of Laurel that we were obliged to go up a Small Branch and from the head of that to the Creek again, and found it good travelling a Small distance from the Creek.  we Camped on the Creek.  Deer are very scarce on the Coal Land.  I having seen but 4 since the 30th of April.

July 13th.  I got home about Noon.  We killed in the Journey 13 Buffaloes, 8 Elks, 53 Bears, 20 Deer, 4 Wild Geese, about 150 Turkeys, besides small Game.  We might have killed three times as much meat, if we had wanted it.

I’m surprised bears were the most common large mammal killed on the trip.  I wonder, if the bears were attracted to the food cooked at camp. or were they simply more numerous in the heavily wooded country.  Just 6 men sure did a lot of damage to the wildlife in just 5 months.  No wonder market hunters wiped out all the large game in Kentucky by about 1840.

Surprise: A Cretaceous Ice Age

Scientists know the Cretaceous Age (140 million years BP-66 million years BP) as a greenhouse world when glacial ice existed nowhere on the planet for millions of years at a time and water inundated 85% of earth’s surface.  But several studies suggest that about 91.2 million years ago, an Ice Age occurred, lasting for approximately 200,000 years.  Scientists noticed the oxygen isotope ratios found in fossil foraminifera dating to this time period indicated the presence of cooler ocean temperatures and the presence of polar ice.  They believe this ice cap grew in the southern hemisphere on the continents of Australia and Antartica which made up one combined continent 91.2 million years ago.  The polar ice cap was only about half the size of the present extent of ice covering the south pole today.  It’s unlikely any ice covered the north pole then.  There’s also evidence of a dramatic lowering of sea level during this 200,000 year episode.  Low sea levels may explain how crocodylian species common to both Western North America and Appalachia (the eastern part of North America) colonized both sides of the Western Interior Seaway.  The WIS was too wide during most of the Cretaceous for even saltwater species of crocodylians to cross, but if a chain of islands existed due to low sea levels, an expansion of their range was possible.

Map of North America during the Cretaceous.

The robust crocodylian (Deinosuchus rugosus) left fossils on both sides of the Western Interior Seaway.  Although no Deinosuchus fossils have been found that date to before 83.5 million years BP, I think they must have colonized Western North America during the Cretaceous Ice Age, 91.2 million years BP , when lowered sea levels allowed a chain of islands to emerge in the WIS facilitating range expansion.  As the illustration depicts, Deinosuchus ate tyrannosaurs.

The Cretaceous Polar Cap grew on the continents of Antartica and Australia which combined to form a single continent then.

Ironically, scientists believe intense global warming caused the formation of the Cretaceous south pole glacier.  The heat increased evaporation, therefore increasing moisture in the atmosphere, resulting in heavy snowfall at high latitudes and altitudes as well as in Antartica.  At high latitudes in Asia average annual temperature during the Cretaceous Ice Age was just 50 degrees F, compared to an average of 64 degrees F during the late Cretaceous.

One of the dominant predators of the Cretaceous Ice Age was Yutyrannus huali; a 27 foot long, 3000 pound feathered tyrannosaur.  It is the largest feathered dinosaur known to science.  The presence of feathers suggests it lived in a cool climate.  Large animals such as elephants, rhinos, and humans evolved toward a loss of fur in tropical climates, while closely related species such as mammoths and wooly rhinos did have fur in cooler climates.  Dinosaurs evolved feathers as a thermoregulatory adapatation, and the feathers originally served the same purpose as fur.  But feathers or fur would contribute to overheating in large animals living in tropical climates.  This means later tyrannosaurs living in the warm climate of the late Cretaceous probably didn’t have feathers, and there’s no evidence they did.

Yutyrannus, an early feathered tyrannosaur adapted for cold-temperate conditions.  During the early Cretaceous tyrannosaurs competed with allosaurs and megalosauroids.  Despite the similarity in appearance, tyrannosaurs were not closely related to allosaurs.

Yutyrannus may have competed with allosaurs and megalosauroids which were contemporeneous but didn’t necessarily occur in the same geographical area.  Allosaurs looked like tyrannosaurs, but were not closely related.  The former had 3 fingers while the latter had 2.  Tyrannosaurs generally were more massively built.  Tyrannosaurs didn’t become extinct until the K-T impact; Allosaurs became extinct well before then.  It’s likely tyrannosaurs eventually outcompeted allosaurs.  The evolution of feathers on yutyrannus may have allowed them to dominate cooler regions and evolve further into a larger more powerful predator, that later, when the Cretaceous Ice Age ended, colonized the warmer regions and drove allosaurs into extinction.

Late Cretaceous fossil outcroppings do occur in southeastern North America.  The following links are my past articles on Cretaceous dinosaur and non-dinosaur fossils found in Georgia and Alabama

http://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/cretaceous-dinosaur-fossils-discovered-in-georgia-and-alabama/

http://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/cretaceous-non-dinosaur-fossils-found-in-georgia-and-alabama/

References:

Macarthur, J.M. et. al.

“Paleotemperatures, Polar Ice Volume, and Isotope Stratigraphy: The early Cretaceous”

Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, and Paleoecology  248 2007 pp. 391-430

Xu, Xing, et. al.

“A Gigantic Feathered Dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of China”

doi 10.1028/nature/0901

Extinct and Extant Pronghorns, America’s Psuedo Antelopes

One species of pronghorn still races across the wilderness areas of the American west where along with bison they’re considered icons of the short grass prairie.  But during the Pleistocene and Pliocene, there were at least 14 species of pronghorns prancing the plains of North America from what is now Florida to California and from Mexico to Canada.

The only species of pronghorn still extant–Antilocapra americana.  Note just 2 prongs.  Some extinct species had 4 or even 6 prongs.

Every species of extant and extinct pronghorn required short grass prairie and/or scrub habitat.  Modern day pronghorns get skittish any time they’re near any trees, no matter how small the wooded area is.  They like to be able to see around them for great distances, so they can use their incredible running ability to keep considerable space between themselves and predators.  Pronghorns can run from 62-70 mph and can maintain top speed for long distances, enabling them to cover 5 miles in 5 minutes.  Many a disapointed group of pioneers went hungry after unsuccessfully stalking the wary fleet-footed mammals.  However, some learned an old Indian trick that took advantage of the creature’s overbearing sense of curiousity.  It’s possible to lure pronghorns to within gun shot range by flashing shiny objects at them.  Like just about every large mammal species, populations of pronghorns plummetted following European colonization, though with modern game management, they’ve rebounded to sustainable levels.

Pronghorns are (or in the case of the extinct species were) characterized by having horns with deciduous sheaths, and they have distinctive teeth and skull ridges.  They’re all browsers of shortgrass prairie plants, carefully picking the most nutritious plants from the available forbs growing among the grasses.   They originally evolved from Merycodonts which were a family of Miocene-age ungulates.  Pronghorns never crossed the Bering landbridge to Asia, unlike horses and camels, and they never penetrated into South America–probably because of their strict habitat requirements.  Some species lived in southeastern North America during the Pliocene and early Pleistocene, but they’ve been absent from the region since the mid-Pleistocene (for at least 1 million years) when the corridor of scrubland habitat became interdicted with woodlands, most likely along the Mississippi River.  This prevented recolonization of the region when habitat conditions may have again become more favorable.  By the late Pleistocene all remaining pronghorn species were restricted to western North America.  Some species are known from only a few specimens while others are represented by many fossils.  The following is a summary of all the species of pronghorns that paleontologists know lived in North America over the past 5 million years.

Prentices’s Pronghorn (Ceratomeryx prenticei)–a poorly known Pliocene species.

Mathew’s Pronghorn (Capromeryx furcifer)–a small 4-horned Pliocene-Late Pleistocene species that was 2/3rds the size of a modern day pronghorn.  It’s fossil remains come from California and Florida.

Skinner’s Pronghorn (Capromeryx arizonensis)–Lived from the Pliocene-Mid Pleistocene.  Specimens have been found in Arizona and Florida (Sante Fe, Inglis).

Diminutive Pronghorn (Capromeryx minor)–A late Pleistocene species that weighed just 20 lbs.  Bjorn Kurten believed it lived much like smaller African antelopes such as klipspringers which hide among rocks and shrubs.  Its remains have been found at Rancho La Brea and other western sites.  At Rancho La Brea it apparently was far more common than the modern day pronghorn which also lived in the region then.

Reconstructed skeleton of the Diminutive pronghorn (Capromeryx minor), an extinct species estimated to weigh ~20 lbs.

Mexican pronghorn (Capromeryx mexicana)–A late Pleistocene species found in Mexico that was about the same size as the diminutive pronghorn.

Schuler’s pronghorn (Tetrameryx shuleri)–A large 4 -horned pronghorn of uncertain age.  Its fossil remains have been found in Texas at the Dallas sandpit.

Skull of Schuler’s Pronghorn (Tetrameryx schuleri), an extinct 4-pronged species of pronghorn.  Fossil remains of this species come from the Dallas sandpit in Texas.

Irvington Pronghorn (Tetrameryx irvingtonensis)–A mid Pleistocene 4-horned species.  Same size as the modern pronghorn.

Knox’s pronghorn (Tetrameryx knoxensis)–Little is known about this species.

Mooser’s pronghorn (Tetramyrex mooser)–An early Pleistocene species found in central Mexico.  It was 4-horned.

Tacubaya pronghorn (Tetramyrex tacubayensis)–Another Mexican species with 4 horns.

Hay’s pronghorn (Hayoceros falkenbachi)–A 6 pronged species the same size as the modern day pronghorn.

Conkling’s pronghorn (Stockoceros conklingi)–It was stockier than the modern day pronghorn but was intermediate in size between that species and the diminutive pronghorn.  During the Pleistocene it roamed the mountains of Mexico and New Mexico and was adapted to rugged terrain.

Quentin’s pronghorn (Stockoceros onusrosagris)–A pleistocene species that lived in Arizona.  Slightly smaller than the modern pronghorn.

Garcia’s pronghorn (Antilocapra garcia)–A Pliocene species ancestral to the modern day pronghorn.  Its fossil remains come from Florida.

American Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)–A Pleistocene and Holocene species.  The only surviving species of pronghorn.

Cheetahs and wolves preyed on pronghorns during the Pleistocene.  The former was the only animal fast enough to outrun them over short distances; packs of the latter could wear down pronghorns suffering from malnutrition or injury.

Reference:

Kurten, Bjorn

Pleistocene Mammals of North America

Columbia University Press 1980

The Ohoopee Sand Dunes

Large sandhills located on the northeast margins of several Georgia rivers have an interesting geological origin.  During the Wisconsinian Ice Age, climate cycles of alternating glacial expansion and retreat occurred.  Severe drought conditions in southeastern North America correlated with climatic phases of glacial expansion when much of earth’s water became locked in ice.  Some rivers, such as the Ohoopee, for the most part dried up, while larger rivers suffered reduced flow and were clogged with sandbars.  The dry climate and large herds of megafauna congregating around shrinking waterholes created a denuded landscape with sparse vegetation.  Strong and frequent Ice Age winds blew the exposed riverine sand across the landscape into eolian sand dunes.  All of these sandhills are located to the northeast margins of rivers–evidence the predominant winds of the Ice Age came from a west-southwesterly direction.

This is a crude diagram I made of the 3 giant sandhills along the Ohoopee River.  Other sand dunes can be found to the northeast edge of the Ogeechee River and the Canoochee River.  These date to ~30,000 BP and ~45,000 BP.  The Ohoopee sandhills date to ~20,000.  The majority of geologists also think the windy dry conditions contributed to Carolina Bay formation as well.

Today, scrub oak and pine hold down the sand dunes.  This is part of the Mcleod Bridge Tract.

The Nature Conservancy and the Georgia State government manage these areas.  Predictably, the sign restricting vehicles past this point is pockmarked with bullet holes and is ignored.

Tire tracks go well past the sign.  Rednecks use the sand dunes as a trash dump.  Shards of glass, spent shotgun shells, and rusted tools litter the preserve.  It reminds me of a used ashtray.

Almost looks like a desert. The tallest trees are 30 feet high.  Some of the small scrub oaks may be 100 years old but never get big because the soil is so poor here.

Turkey oak is a common tree here.

So is sand post oak.

Scrub oak and pine makes for a drab landscape.  I was rather unimpressed.

I had the opportunity to visit the Ohoopee Sand Dunes last week on my way to the Moody Forest Natural Area.  To be honest, I was underwhelmed.  The vegetation consists of scrub oak and loblolly pine.  I didn’t see nor hear a single bird, though I did see deer and turkey tracks.  This scrub habitat seems dull and lifeless.  Perhaps one reason I was unimpressed was because an extensive stand of scrub forest occurs about a 3 minute drive from my home, and it took 90 minutes to drive to a landscape that looks similar to one so close to my house.  However, there are distinctly unique species living on the sandhill.  The scrub forest near my house is probably just second growth, although sandy soils are predominant there.  The sandy soils in south Richmond County originated from Eocene age beaches, not Ice Age riverine sand deposits.

If I had the trip to do over again, I’d double the time I spent at Moody Forest and I’d skip the Ohoopee Sand Dunes.  The latter may have an interesting origin, but they’re not worth the time spent off the beaten path.  (They’re located 5 minutes southwest of Swainsboro.)  I drove by the U.S. 80 tract and didn’t even bother stopping the car to get a closer examination.  It consisted of nothing but closed canopy pine woods and dense oak scrub.

The Moody Forest Natural Area

Between Reconstruction and World War II, lumber companies raped Georgia, clearcutting the beautiful forests that hadn’t already been cleared by greedy, slave-owning cotton farmers.  Jake Moody refused to let them destroy his beloved property, known locally as Moody Swamp.  He made his heirs promise not to allow its destruction.  In 1999 the descendents of his heirs sold 4500 acres to The Nature Conservancy, and today that organization shares ownership and management duties with the Georgia state government.  Thanks to Jake Moody’s foresight and love of nature, a remnant of old growth forest still exists here.

The Moody Forest Natural Area is located in Appling County, Georgia about a 10 minute drive north of Baxley and about a 10 minute drive south of the Hatch Nuclear Plant.  It can be accessed via East River Road, a well-maintained dirt road off Highway 1.  The dirt road is a smooth ride with very few bumpy rutted areas.  Despite being in the middle of nowhere, there are many nice houses on the opposite side of the road from the nature preserve.  The people living here must really enjoy country living–I saw not a single house for sale.  A fat old dog sleeps in just about every resident’s front yard, and many people keep cows, horses, and/or chickens.  One person even had an apiary.  I rank East River Road as one of the best places in Georgia for a naturalist to live.

Big slash pine.  Note the burned trunk.  The Moody Forest Natural Area is burned on a regular schedule to improve habitat for wildlife.  Mature pines and oaks usually survive light ground fires.

A swamp chestnut oak next to an old dwelling of some sort.  There’s space under the shack for chickens and a covered place to hitch the mule up to.  The oak is bigger than the slash pine in the above photo but a size comparison with a person wasn’t possible–by this time on our hike, the mosquitoes had chased my hiking partner into the car.  There are reportedly 200 year old post oaks and overcup oaks in the preserve.  Although dominated by pine, there are a surprising number of oaks here including swamp chestnut, post, Shumards or black (I can’t tell the difference between those species), southern red, overcup, and laurel.

There are 5 miles of trails in the preserve besides the access road that is adjacent to the Moody Family cemetery. Tavia’s Loop Trail is 3 miles long, and the River Trail is 2 miles long but because it’s not a loop that means it’s a 4 mile hike back and forth. If I was by myself, I would have hiked both, but there are no restrooms located anywhere near the preserve, and my wife needed one.  Spending money on a public lavatory probably isn’t a high priority for The Nature Conservancy.  I get the impression The Nature Conservancy doesn’t really want people to tour their protected sites.  The least they could do would be to build an old fashioned rustic outhouse.

Open pine parkland woods.  I didn’t see a single longleaf pine.  Instead,  I saw  loblolly and slash pines.

350 acres of longleaf pine-wiregrass savannah occurs at Moody, but I didn’t see any.  I hiked 1/2 mile up an access road and then another mile on Tavia’s trail, and I didn’t seen a single longleaf pine tree.  There was barely any wiregrass.  At the time of European colonization, longleaf pine savannah was the dominant landscape on the southeastern coastal plain.  Even in the protected Moody Preserve it takes up less than 10% of the land area, showing just how rare it is now.  Perhaps, if I had the opportunity to complete the whole loop trail, I would have come across it.  Instead, I saw mostly open pine parkland dominated by loblolly pine, slash pine, and post oaks.

Information I’ve read about Moody Forest makes no mention of ferns.  This type of fern is by far the most common plant in the undergrowth here. I think it’s royal fern, but I’m not sure.  It’s worthwhile  to see nature in person rather than just reading about it.

Here’s some wiregrass sprouting up after a recent burn.  The only people we encountered were a couple of workers with firestarting equipment.  By setting fires, they are mimicking Indian land management techniques .  Of course, before the Indians,  fires were more irregular and less frequent.  Pleistocene fires may have some times been devastating.  However, more often than not, Ice Age fires were  less severe because the megafauna consumed so much plant material there was less fuel, and dry climate phases fostered less plant growth.

A burrow dug by an endangered gopher tortoise.  I didn’t see the tortoise but I did see 2 rabbits just above the burrow.  I suspect they use the burrow for shelter.  I also saw a red-shouldered hawk carrying a cotton rat, turkey and black vultures, some gray squirrels, pileated woodpeckers, a red-bellied woodpecker, deer tracks, and lots and lots of mosquitoes and gnats.

A place to hitch up the ole mule.  The preserve needs an old-fashioned but working outhouse.  Women don’t like to squat in the wilderness.

This former homesite has 2 fireplaces.  This is one of them.  There are plenty of old ruins at Moody making it doubly interesting to explore.

The Moody Natural Area offers much to explore for the naturalist and the historian.  I barely scratched the surface during the brief but treasured time I was there.  I didn’t even have time to see any part of the River Trail.  Reportedly, 600 year old cypress trees stand there.

This cow pasture sits on the corner of Highway 1 and East River Road.  It’s the only really open space I saw in the vicinity of Moody Forest.  I pretended the cows were long-horned bison and imagined being in the Pleistocene.  There were Canadian geese by the creek, but I don’t think they’re visible in the photo.

Altamaha River Roadside Park

I didn’t have an opportunity to hike the River Trail in Moody Forest, but I wanted to see the Altamaha River up close.  The intersection off Highway 1 and the river has a Roadside Park that I investigated instead.

Graffiti on the Highway 1 Bridge that spans the Altamaha.  I love graffiti.

Spanish moss-draped post oaks.  This is an unusual combination of species.  Post oaks grow on dry upland sites; Spanish moss prefers warm moist lowland sites.  However at this site, they co-occur and dominate.

This is how I imagine a common Pleistocene landscape in Georgia might appear, but with taller grass and populated with bison and horses.

The Altamaha River.  This bend of the river almost looks like a lake.

A scary steep bluff.  Almost looked like a cliff from here.

Here’s proof that a kind of grape other than muscadine grows in south Georgia.  I think this is a River Grape which produces small blue fruit.

There is a Rare Paleocene Fossil Site at Ft. Gaines, Georgia

An outcropping of Paleocene fossils can be found at Ft. Gaines Georgia.  The Paleocene lasted from 65 million BP-55 million BP.

Science fiction stories featuring time-traveling heroes from the future often show them solving their own financial problems with knowledge of which stocks to pick.  This is a convenient, if overdone, subplot solution that gives the hero unlimited money without having to muddy up the plot by having the character engage in a mundane occupation.  If I could time travel to just 2 weeks ago, I could have invested in Ohio Arts, the makers of the Etch-A-Sketch.  Its price has tripled from $4 a share to $12 a share after the Etch-A-Sketch became the symbol of a flip-flopping presidential candidate.  The Etch-A-Sketch is a neat toy for kids who can draw a scene, shake it up to erase it, and start over.  This reminds me of a geological era–the Paleocene.

The famous asteroid collision that wiped out the dinosaurs occurred about 65 million years ago and is known as the K-T impact.  Scientists believe the impact cooked the atmosphere, and the only organisms able to survive were those burrowed underground or living in water.  100% of the dinosaurs and 57% of the megaflora became extinct.  Like an Etch-A-Sketch drawing, most life on earth simply vanished.  Crocodiles, turtles, birds nesting in burrows, fossorial mammals, insects, and plant seeds survived and provided the basis for a redrawing of the ecological picture.

Ferns thrive in ashy soils, and there was a lot of ash after the fires of the K-T impact.  They were the first plants to dominate the landscape when they grew their new shoots into an environment with no shady competition.  Seeds of surviving plants germinated, and plant species eventually evolved to fill new ecological niches left vacant by the mass extinctions.  The same was true for animals.  All animals alive today evolved from detritus feeders because for decades dead plant material formed the base of the food chain.

The rapid evolutionary response to the K-T impact makes the Paleocene a fascinating period of time for paleoecologists to study.  Unfortunately, most paleocene fossils in southeastern North America are almost a mile underground and inaccessible.  However, there are 4 small localities where the face of the land has eroded into Paleocene outcroppings.  A couple are in Mississippi, 1 is in Alabama, and the 4th is located in Ft. Gaines, Georgia.  For the layman there’s not much to get excited about here–the fossils consist of foraminifera (single-celled protozoa with shells) and pollen.  But for the paleoecologist these microfossils are thrilling.

Pollen and foraminifera reveal quite a lot about the environment of the Paleocene.  The Paleocene flora consisted of a strange mix of temperate and tropical species, though the former were probably adapted to much warmer temperatures than those of today.  Plants from the walnut, birch, and elm families grew side-by-side with those from the mango-cashew, balsa, sweetsop, palm, frankinscense, and tea families.  The Paleocene lasted for 10 million years, and the pollen record shows that plant diversity steadily increased by 15% until the PETM.  The PETM is an acronym for the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.  For some undetermined reason average global temperatures suddenly increased by 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit, and CO2 levels in the atmosphere spiked too.  This either directly or indirectly caused the extinction of 38% of plant species and is known as the terminal Paleocene extinction event.  Scientists think there are several possible ecological causes for the floral extinctions:  The climate became drier to the detriment of water-loving species of plants, the increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere may have favored some species of plants over others, and new species of animals evolved that the plants had no defenses against.  Scientists don’t think the climate changed faster than the plants could adjust their geographical range to, but this may have been a an indirect contributing factor.

Only 1 Paleocene vertebrate fossil has ever been discovered in southeastern North America.  In 1932 at Caddo Parrish, Louisiana while drilling a core for an oil well, workers accidentally hooked the skull of Ansinochus fortunatus–a kind of archaic ungulate.  Half of the southeast was under ocean water during the Paleocene, but uplands hosted an interesting cavalcade of primitive mammals, if we assume they were similar to those found at Paleocene fossil sites in other parts of the world.  Marsupials, monotremes, and multituberculates were common.  Multituberculates were a family of rodent-like mammals that lived in the tree tops of the Cretaceous but became extinct during the early Eocene.  Though they resembled rodents, they were not placental mammals and therefore not at all closely related to any extant family of mammals.  Insectivores were the evolutionary base for many placental mammals including the nyctertheridae (pre-bat) and tree shrews (pre-primate).  Condylarths were archaic hooved animals.  Extinct creodonts were the dominant meat-eaters along with primitive carnivores and carnivorous ungulates.  Pantedonts, uinitheres, and xenoungulates were the first large herbivores to evolve following the extinction of the dinosaurs.  The below link is an excellent source of information on Paleocene vertebrate life.

http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/pal_intro.htm

Reference:

Harrington, Guy; and Carlos Jaramill

“Paratropical Floral Extinction in the Late Paleocene-Early Eocene”

Journal of the Geological Society V. 164 2007 pp. 323-332

Cougars, House Cats, and Berserkers

Cougar’s are capable of breeding year round.  This is evidence they evolved from an ancestor that lived in a tropical climate.  Other large mammals living in temperate climates breed in late fall and early winter so they can give birth in spring and early summer when food is more abundant.   Deer and elk fawns and bison calves build a layer of fat during summer that helps them survive harsh winters.  But the same isn’t true for cougars.  Cougars give birth year round, and scientists have found no difference in survival rates among kittens born during different times of the year.  A kitten born during a harsh winter in the Rocky Mountains even has some advantages.  The mother doesn’t have to travel as far to find food because there is an increase in the number of prey animals weakened from starvation.  Animals such as elk and deer also struggle in deep snows, making them easier to kill.  Moreover, bears, a dangerous threat to kittens left alone by hunting mothers, are hibernating and not foraging.  There was no advantage for cougars to evolve the trait of breeding only during certain times of the year.

Photo from the December 1994 issue of Natural History Magazine showing a cougar killing a mountain goat.

The illustration of the larger cat is an artist’s rendering of the middle Pleistocene cheetah–Miracinonyx inexpectus.  The smaller cat in the picture is a modern day cheetah.  Cougars evolved from the ancestor of the middle Pleistocene cheetah, known as Studer’s cheetah–Miracinonyx studeri.  Studer’s cheetah had characteristics intermediate between a cougar and a cheetah.  It could run faster than a cougar, but was larger, stronger, and more powerfully built than a modern cheetah, and therefore could climb trees and ambush larger prey.  North American cheetahs had retractible claws, a characteristic modern cheetahs lack. Cougars were a common predator in the southeast during the late Pleistocene.  There is plenty of fossil evidence of cougars from Georgia and Florida.  Fossil evidence of cheetahs comes from middle Pleistocene sites in Florida, but by the late Pleistocene American cheetahs were restricted to the western part of the continent.

The biggest threat to cougar kittens is adult male cougars.  There is an evolutionary advantage for male cougars that kill cougar kittens.  Male cougars that kill the offspring of other males can then mate with the females that go into heat following the loss of their kittens.  This increases the chance his genes will continue into the future.  A male cougar that covers the most territory, kills the most kittens, and mates the most often is generally the fittest, most capable individual in the area.  Baby-killing appears to be a universal trait among most, if not all, cat species, including the house cat (Felis domestica).

Lone Ranger, my favorite cat.  She was the runt of a litter.  She adopted me during the dead of winter about 2.5 years ago.  Despite her small size, she bravely drives off the much larger tom cats who try to kill her kittens.  Nevertheless, she has never successfully protected her kittens from the persistent homicidal males for longer than 6 weeks.  Oddly enough, she willingly mates with the tom cats days after they kill her babies.

Currently, two female cats have adopted my yard as their home base.  Hissy-fit was one of a whole slew of cats that I think belonged to a former neighbor two houses from mine.  The underfed, half-feral cats swarmed to my compost pile whenever I threw junk in there they considered edible.  I began to pick favorites from this group and fed them real food.  Eventually, cars, dogs, and disease thinned the number of cats, but Hissy-fit, my least favorite, still lives.  She is not a friendly cat–she hisses at me, and she used to lean away (a hint not to pet her) even as I fed her, though after several years of socialization, she now tolerates being petted.  She rarely makes the meow vocalization, but instead hisses, even when she’s seemingly not angry.  She gave birth to my favorite cat–Lone Ranger, the lone survivor from that litter.  She left Lone Ranger for long periods of time on our front door step one cold December when the kitten was a few weeks old.  I took the time to properly tame her, and the first time I let her play with a ball of yarn, she purred.  Lone Ranger is a gentle, affectionate cat, but she is a slut.  In 2 1/2 years she’s already had 3 litters.  Despite being a runt, she’s always very courageous when defending her kittens from the much larger tom cats that persistently try to kill every kitten in their territory.  When she’s protecting her own kittens, she even drives her own mother from the yard.  Hissy-fit just gave birth to another kitten, and Lone Ranger is helping her defend it.  The two cats worked as a team to defend a single newborn kitten last summer as well but were ultimately unsuccessful.  Tom cats are relentless and merciless.

I noticed a peculiarity last year.  Lone Ranger went into heat and mated with a tom cat I suspected of killing and eating her kittens a few days earlier.  Imagine if a human mother would agree to have sex with a man who killed and ate her babies.  It seems unthinkable, bizarre.  Yet, in human history similar scenarios are not that uncommon.

 

Vikings, aided by a berserker, raiding a village.  Berserkers were psychotically violent  men used as shock troops.  In peacetime they were bullies who challenged rich men to death duels.  After killing the wealthy man they took his land, livestock, and women.  Geneological records show berserkers did leave more descendents than other men.  Humans are not so different from cats afterall.

The Vikings were known for their violent culture, but within this society were men who were the most violent of the violent–the creme` de la creme`, so to speak.  These insanely violent men were called berserkers.  Historians suspect they may have been psychopaths or schizoids immune to any semblence of conscience.  Viking kings used them to help intimidate the monasteries and villages they raided and looted.  Berserkers were a great help when they were on a raid, but at home during peaceful intervals they posed a problem.  They often challenged rich men to death duels.  I doubt wealthy men really had a viable way of opting out.  After killing the wealthy man, the berserker confiscated his land, livestock, and women.  The Vikings considered women little more than livestock.  The Viking wives and concubines had no choice but to submit to sex with the psycho who murdered the man they probably loved.  Berserkers were probably indifferent to the fate of babies and toddlers, but I’m sure infanticide did happen.  Berserkers infamously killed people who disturbed their sleep, and crying babies will do that.

Incidentally, I don’t think many of the hundreds of google images of berserkers are historically accurate.  They’re always depicted as uber-muscular giants.  I believe berserkers were ordinary looking men.  It doesn’t take much muscle to kill a man with a sword or battle axe.  Instead, it takes ferocity and a lack of inhibition to murder.  The inhibition against killing other human beings is so surprisingly strong, that military experts extimate only 15% of U.S. combat infantrymen fired their rifles during World War II, even when they were being attacked.  The modern military specially trains men to overcome this inhibition, but still only achieve a 90% success rate at getting combat infantrymen to fire their weapons against other human beings in combat.

Vikings were not the only culture that approved of killing other men and taking their women.  Many American Indian tribes massacred enemy villages with the exception of breeding-age women which they enslaved.  The Mongols under Ghengis Khan wiped out men and spread their seed among the surviving women to such an extent that today a significant percentage of the population in Eurasia has Mongol ancestry.  Some South Pacific Islanders not only killed their enemies but ate them as well.  Cannibalism most frequently occurs on crowded islands where there is a shortage of big game animals, and the people get tired of eating fish.  Overcrowded environments are also a contributing factor.  Perhaps, if overpopulation of the world approaches that of South Pacific islands, cannibalism might become as common for humans as it is for cats.  Maybe the movie, Soylent Green (based on the book, More Room, More Room) was a prophecy.

Reference:

McAllister, Peter

Manthropology

St. Martin’s Press 2009

Florida Sand Scrub Habitat Hosts Pliocene-Age Relicts

About 2 million years ago, an exceptionally dry climate phase occurred over most of North America.  Grasslands and scrub habitat stretched in a continuous belt from southern California to Florida.  Most of the large vertebrates that thrived in such an environment such as llamas, camels, flat-headed peccaries, pronghorns, horses, and donkeys have been rendered extinct or extirpated from the southeast, but the sandhill habitats of north and central Florida still host scores of relict invertebrates in addition to the Florida scrub jay.  Specimens found at the Inglis fossil site in Citrus County, Florida provide a glimpse of the fauna formerly inhabiting the once extensive arid grassland and scrub habitat that existed across the southeast during the late Pliocene.  In addition to the above mentioned species, the antelope jack rabbit (Lepus alleni), now confined to the American southwest, was a common component of the ecosystem when the climate was drier.

Antelope jack rabbits and an extinct species of jack rabbit lived in southeastern North America during the late Pliocene when the climate was much drier than it is today.

Pleistocene glacial cycles also fostered drier climates and an increase in scrubland and grassland habitat, but these environments never again formed an unbroken corridor from west Texas to Florida.  I hypothesize that pine and oak forest species evolved a greater drought tolerance and were able to grow in some areas with favorable conditions, thus forming interdicting fingers of habitat that prevented some scrubland species, such as jack rabbits, from recolonizing the southeast.

The shaded black areas indicate sand scrub habitat–an environment that once stretched from southern California to Florida.  A continous sand scrub belt hasn’t existed for at least 1 million years.  Many small species have become isolated in these relict habitats.

Most of Florida is so low lying in elevation that numerous high sea stands have inundated much of the state.  High sea stands have occurred on many occasions dating as far back as the Miocene and as recently as the Sangamonian Interglacial of the late Pleistocene.  High hilltops, however, remained above sea level as islands surrounded by sandy beaches.  The sand scrub areas of today are simply remnants of these sandy beaches.

The Florida scrub jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) used to be considered the same species as the Western scrub jay (A. californicus).  About 20 years ago scientists declared they were a separate species because they have a shorter broader bill and are less able to disperse following an acorn crop failure.  Fossil evidence shows that Florida scrub jays were a distinct species as long as 2 million years ago.

The Florida scrub jay is an example of a scrubland species now isolated from populations of its ancestral species–the Western scrub jay.  The fossil evidence from Inglis shows that by 2 million years ago, the Florida scrub jay was already a distinct species from the Western scrub jay.  Florida scrub jays are habitat specialists that will not even travel through unsuitable habitat.  They are endangered today because much of their habitat has been transformed into subdivisions and citrus orchards.  Families of scrub jays living on 1 patch of remnant scrubland will not fly through an orange orchard to reach another patch of scrubland.  Studies show that for the bird to survive, they will need corridors of protected scrubland habitat to prevent extinction through inbreeding.

Scrub jays are tame birds, known for taking food from people’s hands.  Offspring help care for young, a habit that makes them semi-communal birds.  Scrubland habitat in Florida provides a reliable crop of acorns which along with seeds, insects, and small lizards makes up the bulk of their diet.  Despite growing stunted, sand live oaks (Quercus germinata). myrtle oaks (Q. myrtlefolia), and scrub oaks (Q. iopina) provide plenty of mast, unlike Rocky Mountain oaks which may fail to produce acorns in the harsher climate there.  This accounts for the behavioral difference between Florida scrub jays and Western scrub jays. The former never evolved the habit of dispersing when the acorn crop fails because in Florida’s climate that seldom happens, but the latter did of necessity and is therefore more widespread and not endangered.

Over 70 species of invertebrates are also unique to the Florida scrublands.  Because it’s such a harsh environment, most plants growing there are high in toxins and have evolved thorny structures to discourage herbivores.  But these defenses don’t deter many of the insects that have co-evolved with them.  Scrub rosemary is a toxic plant that unwillingly hosts species of a grasshopper, moths, and beetles. 

Florida sand scrub wolf spider killing an insect.  Note the spider is the same color as the sand.

Florida sand hair ant (Componotus floridanus).  The hair enables them to travel through sand without sinking.

Other unusual invertebrates are specially adapted to living in sand.  They have waxy armor that protects them from being shredded by sharp grains of sand, and they have stiff hairs that help them locomote through sand without slipping backward.  One species of harvester ant has hair under its mandible in the shape of a basket to carry sand when they excavate their 3 foot deep nests.  Hunting wasps are common, and they actively defend their paralyzed prey because in the thinly vegetated habitat, it’s more likely to be discovered by other carnivores such as tiny yellow predatory ants, wireworms, and robber fly larvae which abound under the sand. 

 Each isolated sand scrub community has its own species of short-horned scrub grasshopper…an ideal case study for biologists interested in evolution.  The wealth of unique arthropod species found in the Florida scrub attracts entomologists and evolutionary biologists who consder the scrublands a mecca of potential new discoveries.  And just think–these invertebrate species once shared a wider range with now extinct megafauna.

Reference:

Deyrup, Mark and Thomas Eisner

“Last Stand in the Sand”

Natural History Magazine (102) 12 December 1993

Let’s Get as Drunk as a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Thirty years ago, I discovered the joy of drinking beer and smoking pot.  My buddies and I played a smoke a joint-drink a beer game that involved alternating those two activities until we were what was referred to as “fucked up.”  On a Friday or Saturday night when I wasn’t toiling for minimum wage in the K-Mart Sporting Goods Department, I’d call one of my friends on the telephone and say, “hey, let’s get fucked up!”  One afternoon he enthusiastically returned the favor.  Unfortunately, it led to an awkward moment–my mom was the one who had answered the phone.

If we had known about the habits of the cedar waxwing, perhaps we would have used a different expression for getting intoxicated until we were “fucked up.”  Cedar waxwings are fruit-eating birds that on occasion gorge themselves on fermented fruit, causing them to become drunk as the following youtube link shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33H9GFNIJE

I suppose saying, “let’s get as a drunk as a cedar waxwing,” could have become a catchphrase among my old gang, sort of like the codewords we had for drug deals we made over the phone in case the DEA had our lines bugged.  We thought it was cool and hip to become intoxicated, but we were only doing something that a dumb bird had likely been engaged in for over a million years before Homo Sapiens even evolved.

I’m aware of only one Pleistocene fossil locality yielding remains of cedar waxwings.  The La Brea tarpits are famous as the source for hundreds of dire wolf, saber-tooth, and mammoth fossils, but not many people know that just about every extant North American bird along with a number of extinct species left individuals trapped in the tarpits at some time over a period of 40,000 years.  Cedar waxwings can be included in this massive bird checklist.  Suitable habitats for cedar waxwings during the Pleistocene likely varied in abundance, and the population fluctuated accordingly.  Fruit-bearing bushes and trees thrived in the open spaces common during most climate phases.

Cedar waxwing eating a fruit that I can’t identify.  They often pass fruit back and forth between themselves when they aren’t gorging on them.

The gluttony of cedar waxwings is an adaptation that helps them maintain their highly migratory habits.  They need  energy from the fat they accumulate by gorging on sugary fruits such as cherries, blackberries, rasberries, mulberries, pokeberries, mountain ash, buckthorn, hawthorne, privet, cranberry, blueberry, sassafras, dogwood, mistletoe, tupelo, and juniper/cedar.  Their preference for the latter fruit explains why they’re known as cedar waxwings.  They’re important seed dispersers of these species as well, widely depositing the seeds in their dung.  They also eat insects, especially beetles, moths, and flies.  They catch them on the wing much like flycatchers.

At least half of their modern breeding grounds were under glacial ice during the Last Glacial Maximum.  Today, they breed no further south than north Georgia, but they do winter in Mexico and Cuba.  Ice Age cedar waxwings may have bred farther south.

I’ve only seen cedar waxwings twice in my life.  Except for when they’re nesting, these are highly transitory birds that take advantage of locally abundant berry producing plants.  If not for this mobility, they would outstrip food supplies and starve.  I saw a flock of cedar waxwings when I lived in Ohio in 1970.  They came, they ate all the rotted crabapples off our backyard tree in late winter, and they left.  Last week, I witnessed cedar waxwings again.  They flocked to my front yard, flying back and forth from the tree tops to the bushes and the ground.  They have a remarkable habit of swerving together to and fro for seemingly no reason, but it’s probably an adapatation to confuse predators.

Beech-Magnolia Climax Forests–Another Relic Environment of the Pleistocene?

In the piedmont and coastal plain of Georgia and other southern states, bluff forests of northern affinities and bluff and slope forests both occur as relics in areas that are too steep to cultivate and too moist to burn.  The species composition of both  forest types would probably be more widespread, if not for the influence of man.  It is a safe assumption that both forest types were common across Pleistocene landscapes, especially during interglacials, interstadials, and even the weak stadials that preceded the Last Glacial Maximum, though during stadials, prairie and coniferous woods were more predominant.

I’m lumping bluff forests of northern affinities together with bluff and slope forests because they are so similar–the only distinction is that the former holds a greater variety of northern species of plants, including disjunct populations of some.  The dominant plants in a bluff forest consist of tulip, hickory, black walnut, beech, sweetgum, basswood, oaks (swamp chestnut, red, black, cherrybark), southern sugar maple, cottonwood, umbrella magnolia, red buckeye, mulberry, pawpaw, hornbeam, mayapple, maidenhair fern, Canadian ginger, and bluebell.

Bluebells (Canpanula americana) blooming in the forest undergrowth.  Disjunct populations of bluebells occur in bluff forests of northern affinities in the deep south.  The southern Pleistocene landscapes must have included scenes like this during phases of  equible climates.

Surprisingly, mountain laurel grows as far south as the piedmont in bluff forests with northern affinities.

These lush forests consisting of cool climate species such as beech and warm climate species such as magnolia were probably the most common climax forests during much of the Pleistocene, particularly when climate phases were more equible than they are today with much cooler summers, but only slightly cooler winters.  The only important missing floral component of this type of forest that was prevalent during the Pleistocene was the extinct Critchfield’s spruce.

Today, both types of bluff forests now only occur on land that slopes toward a river and faces north.  These conditions create a cool microclimate.  Moreover, feeder creeks and seepage springs protect the mature woods from frequent fire.  Before Indians began their annual burning of forests to improve conditions for game, beech-magnolia climax woods probably  occupied land that was eventually transformed into open pine savannah.  Pollen records show that early in the Holocene about 10,000 calender years BP, hardwoods were more prevalent than pine, even in south Georgia.  After the Last Glacial Maximum and into the early Holocene (~15,000 BP-~10,000 BP) beech was much more common in the south than it is today.  So for much of the Pleistocene prior to man, primeval forests on moist sites resembled the bluff forests that now can only be found in a few sites along the Savannah, Altamaha, Chattahoochee, and Appalachiacola Rivers.  Bluff forests at the latter river hold the southernmost population of American beech which grows alongside southern species such as magnolia, cypress, and palm trees.  Other examples of piedmont and coastal plain bluff forests are Magnolia Bluff in Camden County, the Alapaha Bluff, Springhill Plantation, William Bluff Preserve, Altamaha Bluff, and Shell Bluff in Burke County.

Beech-Magnolia climax forest at the Tall Timbers Research Station near Tallahassee, Florida.  Reportedly, this tract is adjacent to long-leaf pine savannahs.

Though the biomass of large mammal species in Beech-Magnolia climax forests of the Pleistocene wasn’t as great as that of Ice Age grasslands in the south, diversity was high.  Ice Age grasslands, which probably occurred adjacent to hardwood hammocks, held large herds of mammoths, bison, horses, llamas, and elk.  But during interglacials and interstadials  when primeval climax forests were more widespread than grasslands, gaps within them supported smaller herds of grazers as well as the beasts of the forest.  White-tailed deer, long-nosed peccary, tapirs, Jefferson’s ground sloth, mastodons, and bears all lived in these truly virgin forests where the mast from giant mature trees must have been exceedingly abundant.  The forests were the haunt of saber-tooth, jaguar, and dire wolf.  The birdlife of today’s world is likely the tiniest of remnants compared to that of the original unspoiled environments because every species living had taken millions of years adapting to it.  American birds have only had a few thousand years to evolve to survive in anthropogenic environments, and recent environmental change is occurring at an even more accelerated rate.

Common mammal species in South American forests.  A similar composition of animals probably occurred in Pleistocene beech-magnolia forests, though the species differed–long-nosed peccary instead of collared, white-tailed deer instead of brocket, Vero tapir instead of the extant South American species.  There were no pacas and agoutis but other unusual species such as Jefferson’s ground sloth and mastodons lived there.

The closest bluff forest near my house is Shell Bluff, named for the Eocene-age fossil oyster shells found there.  Access to Shell Bluff is either a long hike through private property or a boat ride down the river.  I didn’t think a trip to see it was feasible for me.  However, Dr. Charles Wharton wrote that nearby Griffin’s Landing is an even better example of a bluff forest.  I almost explored this area last summer, but it is next to a nuclear plant, and guards from Plant Vogtle close the gate to Griffin’s Landing at dark. I didn’t want to get stuck overnight behind the gate, but now that I know a bluff forest exists there along with fossil oysters, it may be worth a day trip later this year.