Geological Features of Ice Ages in Ohio

My family moved from Ohio to Georgia during 1976 when I was 13 years old. I occasionally wonder how my life would have been different if we never would have moved. Would I have a blog entitled Ohio Before People instead of Georgia Before People? My interest in Pleistocene mammals began before we moved when I read a Time Magazine article about saber-toothed cat bones found at the First National Bank Site in Nashville, Tennessee. Maybe I would’ve had a natural history blog focusing on Ohio instead of Georgia.

Evidence of Pleistocene Ice Ages is abundant in Ohio because glaciers repeatedly advanced and receded over the state. Scientists believe there were 17 major glacial advances in Ohio over the past 3 million years, but geological evidence exists for just the last 2–The Illinoian (230,000 years BP-132,000 years BP) and The Wisconsinian (118,000 years BP-11,000 years BP). These last 2 glacial advances scoured away geological evidence of the previous 15, and the only geological evidence of the Illinoian glacial advance is south of where the glacier advanced during the Wisconsinian Ice Age. During the Illinoian Ice Age the glacier advanced all the way into northern Kentucky.

The following is the geological evidence of Ice Ages in Ohio.

Map showing the maximum extent of the most recent glacial advance during the Wisconsinian Ice Age. During the previous Ice Age, The Illinoian, the glacier advanced even further into northern Kentucky.

Lake Erie

All the Great Lakes were formed from melted Ice Sheet. Before Ice Ages began, the now extinct Erigan River System flowed through where the Great Lakes exist today. The advancing glacier took the route of least resistance and scoured out lake basins in this former river valley. There is no evidence of Great Lakes following previous Ice Ages, but it is likely there were previous incarnations of the Great Lakes. Present day Lake Erie is only 5000 years old, and it evolved from previous post-glacial lakes.

Kettle Lakes

Punderson Lake, a kettle lake in Ohio. Our family went for a picnic here in 1967 when I was 5 years old. A kettle lake is a melted chunk of glacier left behind when the glacier retreated.

Ohio is dotted with kettle lakes. They were formed when the glacier retreated but left big blocks of ice behind in low lying areas. Sometimes these blocks of ice became buried in sediment. Eventually, this melted ice became a small lake.

Kames

A kame in Scotland. (I couldn’t find a good photo of 1 in Ohio). Kames are sandy knobs that were outwash of sediment carried by meltwater streams on top of the glacier. When the glacier underneath melted, they slumped, but many are still higher than the surrounding terrain.

When the glacier was in the process of retreating, meltwater floods and wind often carried sediment on top of the ice sheet. This sediment piled up into hills. Eventually, the ice underneath melted, and the sediment slumped but was still higher than the surrounding terrain.

Moraines

Diagram showing sediment pushed forward by a glacier and left behind after it recedes.

Moraines are sediment pushed in front of glaciers. They appear as hills and show how far the glacier advanced. Glaciers alternately advanced and retreated. The most southerly moraines in Ohio show the farthest extent of glacier advance during the Last Glacial Maximum. Recessional moraines show where glaciers re-advanced during cold climate fluctuations after the Last Glacial Maximum. Spruce tree logs are commonly found buried in the moraines, showing where glaciers rapidly advanced through forests.

Outwash

The glaciers often melted rapidly, and the meltwater flooded down stream and river valleys carrying loads of sediment including gravel and sand. This sediment can be found in stream-like patterns throughout the state, though they are covered with vegetation. There are also lake sediments where the glacier blocked streams and rivers, forming temporary glacial lakes that eventually drained.

Erratics

Erratics are large boulders left behind by retreating glaciers. They are usually rocks not found in the region.

The glacier pushed big Canadian boulders into Ohio, leaving them behind when the ice melted. The big rocks do not match the local geology. The only Cambrian-aged rocks found in Ohio originated from Canadian outcrops.

The Shape of the Ohio River

Before Ice Ages began most rivers and streams in Ohio flowed north. But glaciers blocked the flow and forced the rivers to change course. The Ice Sheet shaped the course of the Ohio River which was actually created during the Ice Ages. Glacial advance extinguished a major Pliocene-aged river system known as the Teays. See also https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2015/05/15/glaciers-shaped-the-ohio-river/

Reference:

Camp, Mark

Roadside Geology of Ohio

Mountain Press Publishing 2006

The Wilds, a Reclaimed Strip Mine in Southeastern Ohio

Big Muskie was the largest excavator ever manufactured. This monstrous machine was 6 stories high and as wide as an 8-lane highway. A single scoop from Big Muskie’s bucket contained 325 tons of rock and dirt, and it could remove 19,000 tons of overfill in an hour. Big Muskie operated from 1969-1991 when the Central Ohio Coal Company, a subsidiary of American Electric Power (a utility corporation), used it to strip-mine at the Muskingham Coal Mine. Eventually, changing economic conditions combined with stricter environmental regulations ended operations at the mine. A 1947 Ohio state law required American Electric Power to restore the land they had destroyed with their strip-mining. Some forest and prairie had never been touched by the mining operation, but many trees and other plants had to be planted. Now, the land has been reclaimed and is known as The Wilds. Since 1984, the land has been used as an area to breed rare and endangered animals in conjunction with the Columbus Zoo.

Location of the Wilds. All the images in this blog entry are from the linked reference below.

Big Muskie, the largest excavator ever manufactured. It operated from 1969-1991 and could remove 19,000 tons of dirt in an hour.

Another view of Big Muskie. It was 6 stories high. A crew of 7 operated it.

Before and after view of the Muskingham Coal Mine, now known as The Wilds. A 1947 Ohio state law required companies that strip mined to restore the land. In conjunction with the Columbus Zoo rare and endangered species are bred here, and native and non-native plants have been planted. It’s also a haven for native wildlife.

The Wilds currently includes 4600 acres of pasture and grasslands with 700 acres of native prairie, 4000 acres of forest, and 1400 acres of ponds, streams, and marshes. The forests consist of oak, maple, ash, beech, and tulip. Native wildlife thrives here, notably deer, bobcat, beaver, and eastern meadowlark. Endangered animals bred in captivity on The Wilds includes 2 species or oryx, Bactrian camels, Bactrian deer, King Pere’s deer, banteng (a species of wild cattle), Persian onager (a species of wild donkey), Pryzelwalski’s horse, zebra, giraffe, white rhino, Asian rhino, Chinese wild goat, African wild dogs, dhole, cheetah, red-crowned crane, trumpeter swan, ostrich, and eastern hellbender. The scimitar-horned oryx was actually extinct at its original range in North Africa, but individuals raised here were used to re-establish a population on their original range. Tourists can take safari tours of The Wilds. If I lived closer, I would definitely visit.

Reference:

https://thewilds.columbuszoo.org/home/discover/training-center/restoration-ecology

The Battle of Chickamauga and the Horrors of War

I can think of nothing more terrifying than being in combat with other human beings. Typical Halloween frights don’t scare me, but the thought of men wielding guns, tanks, combat aircraft, and conventional or nuclear-tipped missiles is very frightening. I sympathize with the people of Ukraine and especially the soldiers who are defending freedom and democracy in a large-scale war taking place now. In pop culture war and horror go hand-in-hand in movies and books. There used to be a comic book entitled Weird War Tales published from 1971-1983 by DC comics. The stories involved killing, maiming, torture, and psychological trauma with the added element of the supernatural. What better way to keep a kid awake late into the night? In reality war is horrible enough without a supernatural element.

Weird War Tales was a popular comic book from 1971-1983. For Halloween this year, I can think of nothing more terrifying than men killing each other at the behest of their governments.

The Battle of Chickamauga was 2nd only to Gettysburg as the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. A few months before this battle General Rosencrans of the Union Army outflanked General Bragg of the Confederate Army in a brilliant tactical maneuver and forced them to retreat from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Union Army advanced all the way to the Chickamauga Valley in North Georgia. General Bragg wanted to retake Chattanooga, and he chose to attack the Union Army in the Chickamauga Valley on September 19, 1863. The Confederates had a manpower advantage here with 65,000 troops vs 60,000 Union troops. The Union lines held on the first day of the battle. On the second day Rosencrans mistakenly thought there was a hole in his line, and he blundered by rushing thousands of reinforcements to where there was no gap in his line. This created an actual gap in his line, and the Confederates pushed through, forcing the Union Army to retreat. The Union Army did fight a successful rearguard action to cover their retreat back to Chattanooga where they spent the winter. The Battle of Chickamauga left Confederates with 18,454 casualties and the Union with 16,170 casualties.

Map of the Battle of Chickamauga. The Union lost this battle due to a General’s blunder.

Union and Confederate soldiers killed each other in the woods and fields at this location. Snodgrass Hill is where Union troops successfully fought a rearguard action, allowing them to retreat back to Chattanooga.

Imagine dead bodies strewn about this split rail fence.

Staring down the barrel of a cannon. Some of the new repeating rifles had a longer range than artillery during the Civil War. Imagine hundreds of bayonet wielding soldiers running up this hill toward you, seemingly coming out of nowhere from the smoke, dust, and shadows.

Imagine trying to poke a hole through someone with that bayonet. Imagine trying to stop an enemy soldier from trying to poke a hole through you, when you just ran out of bullets.

This battle marked the first widespread use of the Spencer repeating rifle, a weapon capable of firing 14 rounds per minute compared to just 2-3 rounds per minute for the average rifle or musket of the time. Union soldiers were shocked at how fast they could mow down Confederate soldiers at once. It was a sign of what would happen in future wars. The bullets used during the Civil War, known as Minie balls, were so large they caused traumatic damage to any limb struck. This explains why there were so many amputations during the Civil War. Even modern medical technology couldn’t salvage a limb struck by a Minie ball. Amputation was the only treatment then, and if Minie balls were used today amputation might also be the only option. Anesthesia was in its infancy and not always available then. Getting a limb sawn off without anesthesia must have been a horrible ordeal

When southern apologists claim black people fought on their side, what they mean is yes, some of them brought their slaves with them. This slave saved his master from a gruesome unnecessary leg amputation by sneaking him out of the hospital. The richer soldiers brought their body servants with them. A body servant was a slave that helped their master get dressed (and probably helped them wipe their ass too).

This man fought for the Union at The Battle of Chickamauga. He later became a lawyer and unsuccessfully argued in front of the Supreme Court against the separate but equal educational system in Plessy vs Ferguson.

Following the Union defeat, General Bragg occupied the heights surrounding Chattanooga. He planned to lay siege to Chattanooga instead of directly attacking it. Many military strategists have criticized this decision. General Grant replaced General Rosencrans. Eventually, the Union Army chased the Confederates away from the heights surrounding Chattanooga. Over the winter General Grant improved Union supply lines in this region, and in the spring he unleashed General Sherman and his troops on the Confederacy, leading to Sherman’s march through Georgia and the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.

Open Woodlands at Chickamauga Battlefield Park

I visited Chickamauga National Battlefield Park last week for the first time in many years. We were in northwest Georgia to see my mother-in-law for a couple of days. She lives in the Chickamauga Valley, and I’m familiar with the natural history of the region. Next week, I’m going to cover the history of the battle itself along with the horrors of war (for my annual Halloween blog post), but this week I want to focus on the natural history of the park. The landscape consists of large, mowed fields bordered by open woodlands.

Turkey and deer thrive in this type of environment.

An open woodland is defined as an environment with 50%-75% canopy cover. A forest is defined as an environment with >75% canopy cover. I estimate this is woodland, not forest.

Some of the trees here grow quite large.

Men were shooting, stabbing, and clubbing each other to death at this site 158 years ago.

An open woodland is defined as an area with 50%-75% tree canopy cover, while a forest is considered an area with >75% tree canopy cover. A woodland has widely spaced trees that allow enough light for grass, and shade intolerant shrubs and saplings to grow. Species of trees I found growing at Chickamauga Battlefield Park included white oak, black oak, northern red oak, scarlet oak, willow oak, black walnut, hickory, southern sugar maple, box elder, tulip, ash, Kentucky coffee tree, cedar, shortleaf pine, and loblolly pine. Botanists believe chestnut was formerly a co-dominant tree here on soils underlain by dolomite, but chestnut blight wiped them out a century ago. Many of the trees in the park now are over 100 years old. Shallow well-drained acidic soils predominate, and they are underlain by dolomite, limestone, shale, and sandstone.

Cedar trees are not fire tolerant. Open woodlands at this site are maintained by mowing and a high population of foraging deer, not fire.

This is either field thistle (Cirsium discolor) a native of North America or bull thistle (C. vulgaris), a native of Europe that has colonized North America. Enough sun reaches the woodland floor that shade-intolerant species can grow. Thistles attract many species of bees and butterflies and seed-eating birds.

Open woodland has probably been the most common environment on this site for millions of years. During the Pleistocene, megafauna foraging, ice storms, and windy conditions likely prevented the tree canopy from getting thick. More recently, Indians set fire to the woods frequently, thus keeping tree canopy open with thermal pruning. Now, I hypothesize a high density of white-tailed deer is keeping this woodland open. There is no hunting inside the park, though it occurs in adjacent areas. I suspect herds of deer find refuge here, and they thin out saplings with their hungry appetites. This habitat is ideal for deer and turkey, and I saw both while driving through the park. Road-killed coyotes are a common site on nearby roads. Fox, skunk, raccoon, possum, squirrel, woodchuck, and rabbit can be found in the park too.

See also: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/deer-herbivory-alters-plant-and-bird-species-composition/

Reference:

Wharton, Charles

The Natural Environments of Georgia

Georgia Department of Natural Resources 1978

The Fascinating Mystery of Homo naledi

Homo naledi, an extinct species of human not ancestral to Homo sapiens, is known from just 1 fossil site in the entire world–Rising Star Cave in South Africa. The remains consist of 15 individuals that apparently were buried in the same location over time. They were discovered during 2013 and anthropologists believe they were deliberately buried, though Homo naledi had a much smaller brain that modern humans. The discovery spawned a fascinating mystery. Why did a primitive species of human bury their dead in the same location? Anthropologists don’t believe humans with such a small cranial capacity could have a concept of an afterlife. The burial pit is pitch dark. They must have used torches to see inside the chamber, but anthropologists don’t think humans this primitive could have mastered fire. Some anthropologists don’t think the site is a deliberate burial pit. They suggest the bodies were simply thrown down a shaft or were carried by flood water. However, the majority of anthropologists who have examined the evidence do believe the bodies were deliberately buried.

Scientists used a variety of dating techniques to determine the age of the Homo naledi remains including uranium-thorium decay, optically stimulated luminescence, electron spin resonance, and paleo-magnetic analysis. They determined the bones range in age from 414,000 years BP-236,000 years BP. This means Homo naledi co-existed for a while with our ancestors: Homo erectus or maybe even Homo heidelbergensis. An anatomical analysis determined they shared characteristics with Australopithecus and Homo genuses, but they should be placed in the latter genus. They could walk upright just like us, though they were better climbers than modern humans. On average adults were less than 5 feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Dental evidence suggests they are dirt-covered roots and bulbs. The location is some distance away from an area rich in game, so they may have existed in a spot where predators such as leopards were less common. They probably used tools. No other evidence of this species may ever be discovered. They diverged from our ancestors at least 900,000 years ago, and we likely will never know very much about our distance cousins.

References:

Dirks, P., et. al.

“The Age of Homo naledi and associated sediments in the Rising Star Cave, South Africa”

Evolutionary Biology May 2017

Irish, J., et. al.

“Ancient teeth, Phenetic Affinities, and African Hominins: Another Look at where Homo naledi fits in”

Journal of Human Evolution 122 September 2015

Missing Pieces of the Ecosystem

The extinctions of Pleistocene megafauna had a profound impact on ecosystems. Large herds of megafauna with the exception of bison were no longer foraging, trampling, and defecating on the landscape in North America. Plant communities were altered, and many predators and scavengers disappeared when all that meat was no longer available. A new study of fossil bones from sites located in the Edward’s Plateau, Texas examined some of the changes in the surviving fauna following the extinction of late Pleistocene megafauna. The authors of this study looked at bone chemistry to determine diet of species before and after extinctions, and they also estimated average size based on fossil remains (in some cases just the teeth). (I should note studies based on stable isotope analysis should be viewed with caution. See: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2016/06/24/trust-the-coprolites-not-the-stable-isotope-analysis/ )

Edward’s Plateau, Texas. Study area of the below reference.

The Edward’s Plateau is located in the middle of the North American continent and hosted species from the West, East, and those that had a continental distribution. During the Pleistocene there were grazers, browsers, and mixed feeders. Grazers included mammoths, bison, and horses. Browsers included mastodon, deer, pronghorn, tapir, llama, rabbits, and hare (jackrabbit). Gompotheres, camels, and peccaries were mixed feeders. The authors of this study could not obtain data from ground sloths, glyptodonts, and helmeted musk-ox to determine what they ate. Scientists found saber-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis) and scimitar-toothed cats (Homotherium latidens) both had a specialized diet of juvenile grazers that were still nursing. These predators fed mostly upon young mammoths and bison that were still dependent upon their mother’s milk. Elephants lactate for up to 3 years after giving birth. Still nursing mammoths faced danger when they wandered away from the safety of the herd. Giant lions (Panthera atrox) and dire wolves (Canis dirus) had more generalist diets, eating grazers and mixed feeders. Black bears mostly ate plants. The lone specimen of giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) in this study had a diet similar to the striped skunk. Strange as it might seem, this giant bear was eating insects, mice, and fruit. Jaguars replaced other large Pleistocene predators as the main predator of juvenile bison and horses, following the extinctions of proboscideans, saber-tooths, giant lions, and dire wolves, but only for a short period of time. Horses are absent in the fossil record during the early Holocene, but this study and others suggest they lingered for a while after other Pleistocene megafauna went extinct. Eventually, jaguars become absent in the fossil record of this region, though historical accounts indicated they occurred as far east as Louisiana into historical times. They probably occurred in low numbers in this region. Cougars, formerly absent in the fossil record from this region, became more common.

In the Edwards Plateau, Texas jaguars temporarily replaced saber-toothed cats as a predator of juvenile bison and horses during the early Holocene about 10,000 years ago. Jaguars eventually became rare in this region too. Chart from the below referenced paper.

After the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna surviving herbivores responded differently. Deer and hare became larger, while cottontail rabbits and bison grew smaller. Hares and rabbits shifted to a diet of plants preferred by grazers.

Reference:

Smith, F., E. Elliot Smith, A. Villegenor

“Late Pleistocene Megafauna Extinction Leads to Missing Pieces of Ecological Space in North American Mammal Community”

PNAS 119 (39) September 2022

Autumn Butterflies

Temperatures finally dropped here in Augusta, Georgia, making my frequent jogging much easier. A rainy August followed by a dry September must have created good conditions for butterflies because I’ve been seeing a multitude of them during my jogs. At least 3 species flutter about the roadsides in my neighborhood. I already wrote about gulf fritillaries (Agraulis vanilae) a few years ago. (See: https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2018/08/21/gulf-fritillary-and-passion-flower-vine/ ) Giant sulphurs (Phoebis sennae) are big yellow butterflies easy to identify. In their larval caterpillar stage they feed upon legumes such as partridge pea and vetch, both of which are fairly common in my neighborhood.

Adult and larval stages of the giant sulphur butterfly.

Adult and larval stages of the black swallowtail butterfly.

Adult and larval stages of the tiger swallowtail butterfly. The above photo is of the dark phase of this species. Most specimens are yellow with stripes.

The 3rd species I’ve been seeing is either the dark phase of the tiger swallowtail (Pteraurus glaucus) or the eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). They won’t stay still long enough, while I’m jogging to identify them, though I’ve positively identified both in my backyard in the past. I suppose I could chase the ones I’ve been seeing during my jogs and catch them with a butterfly net to identify which species is fluttering about, but that is too much trouble. I think they are probably tiger swallowtails which are normally yellow with black stripes and easy to identify, but they do come in a dark phase similar in appearance to black swallowtails. The larval caterpillar stage of the eastern black swallowtail feeds upon plants in the carrot and citrus families. Tiger swallowtail caterpillars feed upon a wide range of plants including foliage of cherry, tulip, and magnolia. Wild black cherry trees are a common component of the local woods. Scientists believe the dark phase of tiger swallowtails mimics the appearance of pipevine swallowtails, a species of butterfly that tastes bad to birds. This mimicry reduces predation. Adult butterflies don’t eat solid food, but get their nutrients from flower nectar, feces, and minerals dissolved in mud puddles.

Goodbye Right Molar #2, Hello Legal Pot Dispensaries in Georgia

The dentist and the dental hygienist were shocked my right molar didn’t hurt when I went for my first teeth cleaning in 10 years. It used to hurt. In 1998 my old dentist filled a large cavity and told me he didn’t think the filling would last 6 months, and I would eventually require a root canal. I’d heard nothing but bad things about root canals, and I began flossing regularly. The tooth endured with no change for 20 years, though it occasionally ached. One evening, I was watching The Walking Dead television show, while snacking on corn chips. I started digging what I mistakenly thought were chewed up corn chips stuck in my right molar, and I pulled out most of that dental work. My right molar never hurt again. By odd coincidence, I later learned my old dentist died suddenly in his office that same week. My new dentist took one look at this molar and said extraction was the only option–not even root canal could save it. I scheduled an appointment to have it removed, but 10 days before this date, it became loose and fell out when I flossed. If I didn’t already have an appointment, I’d leave that spot alone, but the dentist will still want to remove the roots to prevent infection. This procedure shouldn’t be a big deal. He’ll numb the area and use forceps to wiggle the roots free.

Two views of my right molar. A dentist filled this tooth 24 years ago, but he told me he didn’t think the filling would last 6 months. It lasted 20 years, though the tooth often ached. The filling came out the same week he passed away. It stopped hurting. My new dentist suggested extracting it, but it fell out 2 weeks before the appointment.

I want to keep the rest of my teeth and that means regular visits to the dentist. Like a kid, I need an incentive. Kids get candy for being good, so I’m going to give myself adult candy and visit a local cbd smoke shop every time I have a dental appointment. Stores that sell cannabis products are now offering Delta-8 cbd. Illegal marijuana is Delta-9, but chemists use isomerization to change Delta-9 to Delta-8. Delta-8 has the exact same chemical composition as Delta-9, but it has a different structure, so technically it is legal. I wasn’t impressed the first time I tried Delta-8–the high was mild and short-lived. However, smoke shops and convenience stores that sell Delta-8 are not regulated at all, and I believe some of the Delta-8 products they sell have considerable amounts of residual Delta-9. Last time I tried it, I could not tell the difference. The FDA warns there have been hundreds of people who have gone to emergency rooms across the country after consuming Delta-8, but this is out of tens of millions of users. Those people were probably not used to getting high or simply suffered unwarranted paranoia–a side effect of marijuana consumption. I don’t think state authorities are eager to crack down on cbd shops. I think they don’t want people from Georgia traveling to other states to purchase recreational pot because it means lost tax revenue. So pot is basically legal here now.

I reward myself for going to the dentist with a trip to the CBD store. Recreational marijuana is still technically illegal in Georgia, but stores that sell CBD products have found an end run around the law.

Honest, I wasn’t high when this thought occurred to me. What if the human race became extinct, and the only evidence left of our existence was my broken tooth pictured above? How would alien paleontologists exploring our planet imagine what we looked like based on 1 broken tooth? The only evidence of the existence of an extinct ape known as Gigantopithecus blacki is about 60 teeth–no other skeletal remains have been found. This species is thought to have lived from 2 million years BP-300,000 years BP. They lived in jungle environments with acid soils where fossil preservation is rare. Their teeth were found in caves with the remains of stegodon, rhino, tapir, goat, deer, ancestral tiger, hyena, dhole, and bear. Scientists believe they ate forest plants, especially fruit. 15 of the 62 teeth found so far have tooth decay. This species could have used a dentist. Scientists think its closest living relative was the orangutan, but it is believed to have been much larger. In my opinion artists’ depictions are quite fanciful, based on wild guessing.

Paleontologists imagine Gigantopithicus looked like this. The only fossil evidence of this species is some 60 odd teeth. I think this reconstruction is a stretch.

Gigantopithecus teeth.

Railroad Ecology

George Stephenson invented the first workable steam engine locomotive in 1814, and he designed the first working rail system in 1820. The British government approved the construction of this first track used for hauling coal. The first rails were made of wood, but they wouldn’t hold locomotives filled with heavy loads of coal. The type of iron available then was also not strong enough to hold all that weight, so Stephenson invented an improved type of iron that could. Americans bought this technology and constructed our first working railway track in 1828. It was the Baltimore-Ohio Railroad and was 8 miles long. Tavern keepers opposed the construction of railways because they feared losing business when railway tracks were constructed far from their establishments, and religious nuts who thought railroads were sinful also fought against their construction, but the free market eventually won. Today, there are over 800,000 miles of railway tracks around the world.

George Stephenson invented the first workable locomotive steam engine in 1814. He also invented the iron used on railway tracks.

The many miles of railway tracks across the world have a big impact on the environment. They increase mortality of large animals, and they serve as migratory barriers for smaller animals, especially amphibians. Herbicides used to suppress vegetation influence the types of species that can live near railway embankments. Grassland corridors on railway embankments cut through forest facilitate the spread of invasive plant species. The impact is so extensive that railroad ecology has become a subset within the science of ecology. Railroad ecology has been more studied in Europe than the United States, but more and more scientists here are starting to pay attention to it.

A study in southern Poland looked at the influence of railway embankments on bird populations. This study counted 1644 individuals of 67 species. They found railway embankments hosted a greater diversity of species, but total number of birds was about the same as found in agricultural fields. They counted 923 individuals of 58 species found on railway embankments. The 3 most abundant in order were starlings, skylarks, and white-throated sparrows. 17 species were only found on railroad embankments, while 9 species were only found in agricultural fields. Railway transects had higher diversity, but birds were most abundant where railway embankments passed over wetlands, wet meadows, slopes, and bushy areas.

A scientific study found skylarks were the 2nd most common species of bird found on railroad embankments in southern Poland.

A study in Alberta Canada looked at wildlife mortality caused by train collisions with large mammals. This study determined 646 large mammals were killed by trains along 1 major track between 1995-2018. Species killed by trains here included grizzly and black bears, white tail and mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, wolf, coyote, and Canadian lynx. 50 bears, 27 large carnivores, and 560 ungulates were killed. Areas with increased train speed and near water resulted in greater casualties. Trains coming around bends also caught large mammals by surprise.

This moose was rescued, but many large mammals are killed by trains every year.

References:

Cassady, Colleen, V. Whittingham, A. Forshner, A. Gangadhare, and D. Lietze

“Railway Mortality for several Mammal Species Increases with Train Speed, Proximity to Water, and Truck Curvature”

Scientific Reports 20776 2020

Kajzer-Bonk, J. et. al.

“The Effect of Railways on Bird Diversity in Farmland”

Environmental Science and Pollution Research 26 2019

Natural History in Yiddish

My late Grandfather on my father’s side spoke 7 languages, and his second wife spoke 8. They lived in Europe where countries that have different official languages border each other. I know 1 language because I live in the U.S. and never needed to learn a different one, though I long wish I was fluent in more than just English. I took a year of Spanish and a year of French in high school, but I’ve forgotten most of what I learned and never did master either enough to speak or understand them fluently. I suffer from a neurological condition that puts me at high risk for developing dementia. To delay the onset, I decided to keep my mind active by learning a new language. I chose Yiddish. My dad used to pepper his language with Yiddish words, and I think this experience gives me a head start. Moreover, my last name is Yiddish. Gelbart is Yiddish for yellow beard. Centuries ago, one of my ancestors must have been a blonde.

Yiddish is older than modern English and modern German. Modern English originated between 1400 AD-1500 AD, and modern German began between 1500AD-1600 AD, but Yiddish originated about 1000 AD. Yiddish literally means Jewish, and it was the language most often spoken by Jews of Central Europe until World War II. When Judea (now Israel) was a colony of the Roman Empire, Jews periodically rebelled. To suppress rebellion and dissent, Romans took a majority of the Jewish population into slavery and removed them from Judea, spreading them throughout the Roman Empire where they could no longer muster an organized resistance. Eventually, Jews in what today are Italy and France became free merchants and artisans. Germanic kings invited them to live in the Rhine River valley to improve their economies. Jews were likely speaking a combination of archaic Italian and French along with Hebrew and the related language of Aramaic. Soon, they picked up the medieval German languages spoken in the Rhine River valley. Whenever economic times deteriorated, Jews became the scapegoats, and the nobility would put the blame on them, and they would often be expelled. But Slavic kings located in what today are Poland and Russia would invite them to their kingdoms to help improve their economies. The Yiddish language picked up Slavic words as well. Yiddish is a mix of all these languages but is primarily medieval German with about 15% Hebrew. Jews still spoke Hebrew in synagogues and schools, but Yiddish was a street language used in their daily lives. Hebrew was considered a holy language. Before World War II there were 11 million Yiddish speakers in the world, but today there are just 600,000, mostly Hasidic Jews living in New York City and Israel. Israel chose Hebrew over Yiddish as its official language.

When the Romans conquered Judea and later suppressed rebellions, they enslaved much of the population and transported the Jewish slaves throughout the Roman Empire. Many Jews that were settled in Italy and France eventually migrated to kingdoms where Germanic languages were spoken. Yiddish–a complex mix of Hebrew, Romance languages, Slavic languages, and medieval German–originated there.

I’ve encountered difficulties learning Yiddish. Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet. I took some Hebrew classes 50 years ago, but to be honest most of the Hebrew alphabet letters look alike to me. I decided learning the Hebrew alphabet was too challenging for me, so I am learning Yiddish transliterated into the English alphabet. I think Yiddish is probably no harder to learn than English for people who didn’t grow up speaking it. However, there are some quirks. For example the article “the” has 4 different versions in Yiddish depending upon the gender of the noun it precedes, and there is no rhyme or reason for whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neutral. Masculine nouns are preceded by der, feminine nouns by di, and neutral nouns by dos. To know which is which requires rote memorization of every single noun and its preceding “the.” Masculine nouns that are the objects of a sentence or in a prepositional phrase are preceded by a 4th version of “the”–dem. Feminine nouns in prepositional phrases become masculine and are preceded by der instead of di. Neutral nouns in prepositional phrases are preceded by dem. Prepositions and “the” articles commonly become contractions–an additional challenge. Another complexity are plural words. In English plural words are simply followed by an s, though some words require the middle vowels to be changed, as in geese instead of gooses. In Yiddish plural words can end in en, s, er (with a middle vowel change), im, and es. Money and time have no plural versions but remain singular.

Today, I combined my natural history studies with my Yiddish studies and learned about 50 natural history words in Yiddish. Some words are remarkably similar or exactly the same in both languages, but others are quite different. I got these from google translate, so if they are wrong blame that.

natural history-natural geshikhte

tiger-tiger

lion-leyb

cat-kats

wolf-vulf

dog-hunt (Interesting. Dogs were used for hunting, so hunt?)

bear-bir

cow-ku

buffalo-buflox (Ox?)

horse-ferd

sheep-shep

elephant-helfin

camel-kemi

hare-hoz (My father called rabbits, “hazels.”)

rabbit-kinigi (Similar to the archaic word for rabbit in English–coney)

squirrel-veverke

wild boar-vilde khazer (Khazer is a big insult in Yiddish because pigs are not kosher.)

deer-hirgch or dir

animal-khaye or behamye (Similar to beast?)

mouse–moyte

rat-shtshur

bird-foygi

dove-tayb

eagle-odler

hawk-fulk

owl-sove

snake-shlang (Similar to shlong, slang for a penis)

frog-zobe

dinosaur-daynasar

ground sloth-erd slotsch (Earth similar to erd)

catfish-som

carbon dating-tshod dayting

sedimentary rock-sedementari shteyn

spider-shpin (As in spin a web)

ant-muraske

cockroach-taraken

open pine savannah-efenen sosne savannah

oak woodland-demb vudland

beech and birch forest-bitsch aun berne veld

prairie-preri

dry scrubland-trukn skrublem

sea shore-im brig

grassy hill-granike berg

ecology-ekologi

copulation-kapayaleyshen

sperm-zeyre

erection-ireksten

remove your bra and panties-aropnemen dayn biusthalter aun heyzelke (Another word for bra is stanik.)

Reference:

Blech, Benjamin

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Yiddish

Alpha Books 2000