Within the last few years scientists have discovered the fossilized stomach contents of 2 dinosaurs. This is extremely rare. Just 3 or 4 specimens of dinosaurs with possible fossilized stomach contents were known before these 2 discoveries. Darrin Tanke of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology found Gorgosaurus libratus remains in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. Gorgosaurus was a type of tyrannosaur that lived between 66 million years ago-80 million years ago. This specimen was a juvenile that weighed about 700 pounds. Adults reached weights 10 X larger, about the size of an elephant. Remarkably, fossilized stomach contents were found among the Gorgosaurus bones. They included the leg bones of 2 baby Citipes elegans, a species of oviraptorosaur. These specimens were the size of chickens. One was eaten hours or even a day before the other because it showed signs of being more digested. Scientists don’t know much about citipes. They’re not even sure what they ate. The specimen is evidence tyrannosaurs dismembered their prey before consuming it because just the legs were consumed.
During the early Cretaceous there were many different-sized species of predators, but during the late Cretaceous there were just 2 sizes–large tyrannosaurs and small velociraptors. Evidence of this specimen suggests juvenile tyrannosaurs occupied the niche of mid-sized predators in late Cretaceous ecosystems.
Gorgosaurus likely dismembered their prey before eating.
Photo of the specimen discussed above.
Image highlighting the bones found in the specimen discussed above.
Evolutionary relationship between Gorgosaurus and other Tyrannosaurs.
Stomach contents of this species of sauropod were found in Australia.
Photo of diamantinasaurus remains found in Australia.
Even more recently scientists discovered the fossilized stomach contents of a Diamantinasaurus matildae in Queensland, Australia. This species was an enormous sauropod. The specimen dates to 94 million years ago, earlier during the Cretaceous. This animal ate conifers, seed ferns, and flowering plants from the ground to treetop. Its long neck enabled it to exploit resources high in the canopy, but it foraged on plants growing near the ground as well. Evidence suggests gut bacteria helped them digest their food.
References:
Poropat, S. et. al.
“Fossilized Gut Content Elucidates the Feeding Habits of Sauropod Dinosaurs”
Current Biology 35 (11) 2025
Thierren, F. et. al.
“Exceptionally Preserved Stomach Contents of a Young Tyrannosaurid Reveal an Ontogenetic Dietary Shift in an Extinct Predator”
A forgotten gym teacher may have been the best all-around athlete of the early 20th century. Tonight, the History Channel is airing a documentary about Jim Thorpe entitled Lit by Lightning. Promotional excerpts include exaggerated statements about how Thorpe was the greatest athlete of all time and a great American (Why? Because he could run fast and throw a ball?). However, a little-known gym teacher of the same generation performed better than Thorpe in 19 track and field events. Indeed, Thorpe was aware of Richard Perry Williams and called him the fastest sprinter who ever lived. Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon gold medals in the 1912 Olympics but was forced to return them when authorities discovered he had played minor league baseball before competing in the Olympics. During the Gilded Age professional athletes were considered tawdry, like sex workers. Williams suffered from the same snobby prejudice. The Amateur Athletic Union, the governing body of sport at the time, considered Williams a professional athlete because he took a job as a gym teacher at Tufts University in 1899. None of his records were officially recognized because he was considered a professional, though he definitely beat the amateur world record of the time in the 100-yard dash.
The History Channel is airing a special about Jim Thorpe tonight. Richard Perry Williams of the same generation performed better than Thorpe in 19 track and field events.
Photo of Richard Perry Williams. He was as fast as a modern-day Olympic Sprinter over 100 years ago.
Photo of Williams when he was in his fifties. He worked for the CCC and an ammunition plant after retiring from being a gym teacher.
Richard Perry Williams was born in Cornwall, England during 1874 and his family moved to the U.S. 5 years later. He began competing in track and field during the last decade of the 19th century. In 1902 he was just 5’9″ and 141 pounds but after meeting Eugen Sandow, a famous vaudevillian strong man of the time, he added 20 pounds of muscle from weight-training, a method not commonly used at the time. In 1906 he ran the 100-yard dash in 9 seconds flat–stunningly ahead of his time. It’s tied with the officially recognized record in that event held by Ivory Crockett in 1974. The world record in the 100-meter dash set in 2009 by Usain Bolt is 9.58. Williams once ran the 100-meter dash in 9.8 seconds, showing he could’ve competed with modern day Olympic sprinters. He accomplished his 100-yard dash on a perfectly measured track and timed with 5 different stopwatches. However, he could never match that time again, and the best he could do was 9.2 seconds–still competitive with modern Olympic sprinters. Here’s a list of some of his feats. Most of them were accomplished when he was between the ages of 22-34 (1898-1910).
100-yard dash–9 seconds
100-meter dash–9.8 seconds
400 meters–46.6 seconds
mile run–4:28
long jump–26.5 feet
standing broad jump with weights–15.4 feet
16-pound shotput–47 feet 9 inches
12-pound shotput–57 feet 3 inches
discus–142 feet 9 inches
baseball throw–418 feet 3 inches
circling the bases on a baseball diamond–12 seconds
chin-ups–48
dips–55
(I can do >60 pull-ups and could probably do more than 55 dips. The last 2 are not exceptionally impressive.)
Wiliams best sport was one wall handball. From 1895 when he was 19 until 1943 when he was 67, he went 14,657-0, never losing a game.
He was a winning coach as well. He worked as a gym teacher and coach at various small colleges in the Midwest including Wittenberg University in Ohio. His track teams went 221-6. His baseball teams (including high school and club) went 426-30. His football teams won 321 games and 16 championships, and his basketball teams won 1016 games and 21 championships.
During the Depression he took a job as an administrator for the Civilian Conservation Corps. He worked as an inspector for an ammunitions plant during World War II when he was in his late sixties. He died in 1966 a few weeks before his 92nd birthday.
References:
Willoughby, David
The Super Athletes
A.S. Barnes and Company 1970
Zimkus, John
“Is One of the World’s Greatest Athletes Buried in Lebanon”
There are many strange creatures inhabiting earth’s oceans. Sea Horses could be considered among the strangest fish to live in the sea. There are about 46 species of sea horses, and they belong to the genus Hippocampus, a Greek word meaning horse. Their heads and bodies superficially resemble those of horses. Genetic evidence suggests they diverged from pipe fishes between 25 million-30 million years ago. During this time period tectonic processes expanded shallow water habitat favorable for sea horses. They prefer shallow ocean where sea grass can grow. These odd fish use camouflage in sea grass beds to avoid predators and to sneak up on prey. They were probably most abundant during Pleistocene Ice Ages when sea levels dropped, creating extensive sea grass habitat. However, fossils of sea horses are known from just the Miocene and Pliocene. Genetic evidence suggests sea horses originated in the Pacific and colonized the Atlantic during 2 separate expansions.
Sea horses are an evolutionary improvement over pipe fish, though the latter are still extant. Both types of fish suck in tiny animals such as brine shrimp, copepods, and newly hatched fish fry, but the vertical position of sea horses helps them suck in prey from a greater distance than pipe fish can. 3 more traits make sea horses seem unusual. They are armored, they have prehensile tails, and the males get pregnant. During mating females transfer their eggs to the male’s pouch. The males then give birth to up to 2500 live young.
The vertical position of a sea horse allows them to suck in food from a greater distance than their cousins, the pipe fish.They have to eat constantly because their digestive systems are inefficient.
Sea horse life cycle.
Scientists who authored a new study about sea horses captured them in Tampa Bay, Florida for a year during 2022/2023. They found dwarf sea horses were most abundant during the month of October. Sea horses are vulnerable due to the loss of sea grass beds caused by dredging and pollution. They are also a frequent bycatch of shrimp trawlers. Some Chinese cooks make a medicinal soup from sea horses, but reportedly they are flavorless.
References:
Brown, P.; P. Bland, and E. Rov
“Seasonal Population and Ongoing Morphometric Analysis of Wild Dwarf Sea Horses Hippocampus zosterae“
Georgia Journal of Science 82 2024
Teske, P.; M. Cherry, and C. Matthee
“The Evolutionary History of sea horses (Syngnathidae: Hippocampus): Molecular Data Suggests a West Pacific Origin and two invasions of the Atlantic”
I liked Blue Ridge, Georgia better than the other North Georgia tourist traps I’ve visited, including Dahlonega, Helen, and Ellijay. We stayed at the Hampton Inn located in downtown Blue Ridge, and we were on the 5th floor next to the Hook and Eye Bar. The bar is named for unique railroad track features–a hook around 1 mountain and an eye-shaped part of the track that goes over another mountain. There is a nice mural on a 5th floor wall near the bar, describing the history of the railroad line that runs from Marietta, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee. Part of the track is adjacent to the hotel. This railroad track was built between 1870-1890. The town of Blue Ridge sprung up to serve as a railroad stop along this line. Today, tourists can ride on this train, but we didn’t. In my opinion riding on a train is just like riding in a car but less comfortable.
Tourists can ride the train in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
There’s a nice mural next to a bar on the 5th floor of the Hampton Inn describing the history of the railroad. The bar is named after features of the railroad track where the track hooks around 1 mountain and goes over another mountain on a bridge over another part of the track.
We visited the Chimp Project. It’s a 238 acre preserve for chimpanzees retired from medical research. Unfortunately, the Chimp Project only allows the public to see the chimps a few times a year. Afterall, they are retired and should enjoy peace. Reportedly, visitors can sometimes hear the chimps, but they were quiet when we were there. The preserve has a nice koi pond, nature trails, and a gift shop. Proceeds from the gift shop go to support the chimps. Hemlock, white pine, maple, tulip, Chinese chestnut, and oak with an understory of rhododendron grow in the surrounding woods. Gray squirrels jump from tree to tree. I heard blue jays but not the chimps.
Koi are just big goldfish.
This sign doesn’t include the gibbons or humans.
Mercier Fruit Orchard has an impressive store with many overpriced items. They charge $13 for 1 can of hard cider–the price of a 6 pack of hard cider at an average package shop. They already had an early ripening summer apple variety known as Lodi. It tasted better than their peaches. Lodi are good but very tart. I saw more wildlife at Mercier Fruit Orchard than anywhere else on this vacation. I saw a thrush, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, eastern kingbird, cat bird, mockingbird, and rabbits. The fruit trees are planted on hillsides so early spring frosts will sink off the trees, and heat from the irrigation ponds also protect against early spring frosts.
Irrigation pond for the fruit trees.
Fruit trees grow on hillsides here.
Eastern kingbird. There were lots of birds around the orchard.
The orchard store is huge.
They had new crop Lodi apples, peaches, and blueberries. Their apples were better than their peaches.
We decided to vacation in Blue Ridge for the fried pies. I can’t find a bakery in Augusta that makes decent fried pies. I have to make them myself, and they are a pain to make.
Model-A Ford that was formerly used to transport fruit grown at this orchard.
Rabbits abound near the orchard.
We stopped beside the beautiful Toccoa River. Signs warned trout fishermen that they wade into the rushing waters at their own risk. I saw an osprey while waiting for dinner at the Toccoa River Restaurant, and I also took a shaky long-distance photo of a belted kingfisher. There were a pair but just 1 stopped on a telephone wire.
The Toccoa River is a well oxygenated trout stream.
Most of the people who lived in this part of Georgia did not support the confederacy. Some deserted and were shot.
Cherokee Indians used to wash their clothes on these rocks.
This was the least blurry photo I took of a belted kingfisher. I estimate it was 80 yards away. They nest in riverbank tunnels and eat minnows, snails, and insects.
We went to 3 restaurants in Blue Ridge. We ate at Southern Charm down the street from our hotel. I enjoyed the fried chicken livers and onions, collard greens, and mashed potatoes. I usually like my liver without breading, but their coating was nice and crunchy. Most people probably order fried chicken with this crunchy coating. The collard greens were well seasoned, and the mashed potatoes were made from scratch. As an appetizer, they serve a buttermilk biscuit with locally made apple butter. At the Toccoa River Restaurant I ate a delicious smoked trout salad, but considering the prices they charge should have come with home-made bread. An expensive restaurant like this should also serve hand cut fries instead of crinkle cut frozen ones. For lunch we went to a Cuban restaurant, but their service confused me. They expect the customers ordering Cuban food to order on 1 side of the restaurant, and customers ordering American food to order on the other side of the restaurant. They have a computer screen for ordering on the American side, and I couldn’t figure out how to use it, and the lady working there didn’t really help me. I gave up and went elsewhere. It’s the same reason I stopped going to McDonalds. I don’t even understand their menu–it’s too complicated, and customers have to order on a computer screen. Ray Kroc, the man who used simplicity to make McDonalds so successful, must be rolling in his grave.
Fried chicken livers, collard greens, and mashed potatoes at Southern Charm.
My wife ate chicken pot pie at Southern Charm. In my opinion it was too salty.
Smoked trout salad. Trout is locally farm-raised here. It’s delicious.
The skeletal remains of 14 mammoths were found at the Tultepec Fossil Site, Mexico between 2016-2019. Scientists recently used bone collagen and tooth enamel from these specimens to determine what they fed upon. They analyzed the isotopic composition of the teeth and bones, and they looked at their teeth under a microscope. Most trees, bushes, and forbs are known as C3 plants, and most species of grass are known as C4 plants. They have recognizably different ratios of carbon isotopes, and the animals that eat these plants reflect those isotopic ratios in their bones. Animals that eat leaves and twigs tend to have microscopic pits in their teeth; grass-eating animals tend to have microscopic scratches in their teeth. A previous study found a discrepancy between the isotopic evidence and the dental evidence. The latter suggested mammoths mostly ate grass, but the isotopic evidence suggested they were mixed feeders.
Location of fossil sites in Tultepec where mammoth remains used in the below referenced study were found.
Isotopic and dental evidence suggests Mexican mammoths were mixed feeders and ate grass, leaves, and twigs.From the below referenced study.
Scientists looked at mammoth teeth under a microscope and found scratches caused by eating grass and pits caused by eating twigs and leaves.From the below referenced study.
The new study found no discrepancy. Both the dental and isotopic evidence suggests mammoths were mixed feeders. They came to another interesting conclusion. Some of the mammoths from this region were year-round residents and ate the same kinds of plants their whole lives. Other mammoths, however, migrated long distances and apparently ate a different variety of plants than the year-round residents. Mammoths had a curious population dynamic with some migrating from far away and others staying in the same region for most of their lives. Perhaps, the migrating mammoths were males seeking new territories. Evidence from another study showed that some mammoths migrated back and forth from central Georgia to central Florida. In any case mammoths were adaptable animals, and if not for man would surely still exist.
Reference:
Rodrigues,-Franco, S., et al
“Dietary Reconstruction of Mammuthus columbi from Tultepec, Estrada de Mexico: A Multi-Proxy Approach”
Paleogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Paleoecology 666 May 15, 2025
If not for King Alfred the Great, Great Britain would be a Scandinavian country today. Viking raiders began marauding Britain during the late 8th century. Most of the people who lived in Britain at the time descended from Angles and Saxons–Germanic tribes that began migrating to Britain around 500 AD after the Roman Empire collapsed. Wales was a refuge for the original inhabitants of Britain. The region we know today as England consisted of several kingdoms during the 9th century. Aside from occasional civil wars within the kingdoms, the people living on the island then were not used to violence, and the Vikings found easy victims in the undefended monasteries. They robbed and murdered defenseless nuns and monks. These pious people believed the Viking attacks were divine retribution because they weren’t devoted enough to God. Nevertheless, the local kings began raising armies and fighting back against the Viking marauders. King Egbert, Alfred’s grandfather, fought the Vikings, losing 1 battle, but winning another during 839. Aelwulf, Alfred’s father, inherited the throne in 840.
Alfred the Great is considered the founder of modern England, but he survived numerous battles with Vikings and a coup before he became known as the Great king. He was born in 839, the youngest of 5 siblings–his oldest brothers were born to a different mother, and they were decades older than him. After Aelwulf’s death Alfred’s older brothers became kings of Wessex, a kingdom in the southern part of Britain.
Viking raiders began establishing permanent settlements in Britain and eventually took over the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia. Kings often paid tribute to get the Vikings to leave them alone, but then the Vikings would break their oaths and simply occupy a different region of the kingdom. Vikings would set up puppet kings in the kingdoms they controlled. The Vikings launched a major invasion with 300-400 warships and 5000 men during 865. Alfred helped his last surviving brother king fight the Vikings. They allied with the neighboring kingdom of Mercia to fight off the Vikings, but when the Vikings next invaded Wessex, Mercia did not return the favor. Alfred’s older brother died, probably from wounds suffered weeks earlier at the Battle of Mereton, and Alfred inherited the throne in 871.
Kings participated in battles during this time period. Battles were primitive brute force in the 9th century. Both sides would form shield walls and push against each other. Men in the first row tried to stab around and between the shields with swords and spears. When a shield holder fell, another would move up to plug the gap. Saxon and Viking kings often died during these types of battles.
These were the kingdoms of England during the 9th century. King Alfred the Great laid the groundwork for them to be united. His son, Edward, united them all into the country of England.
9th century warfare was brutal hand to hand combat. The goal was to break through the other army’s shield wall. Kings participated.
9th century Britain was wilderness and farmland. There were very few towns and a few people lived in abandoned Roman ruins. Unbroken oak forest thousands of square miles in extant still existed then.
King Alfred and his followers were forced to hide in a marsh after a coup staged by disloyal nobles allied with the Vikings.
Artist’s depiction of King Alfred the Great hiding in a marsh following a coup.
King Alfred hid on a hill in the middle of a marsh that was accessible only by boat. The hill was hidden by an alder scrub thicket. All these other structures were built long after Alfred hid here.
During the first 4 years of Alfred’s reign Vikings conquered Mercia because Alfred and his brother had fought them to a standstill in Wessex and bribed them to go away. This time Alfred did not come to Mercia’s rescue. In the year 875 Vikings began another major invasion of Wessex, but a storm sank hundreds of Viking ships. Alfred attacked the remaining Vikings and forced them to retreat back to Mercia. To raise and maintain his army, Alfred depended upon noblemen landowners to provide money and peasant manpower. Noblemen who couldn’t provide this were forced to cede land to the king. Some key noblemen decided that instead of paying King Alfred to defend the kingdom against the Vikings that they would pay the Vikings directly who would establish a puppet king to replace Alfred. It was a coup and Alfred was forced to flee with a few of his loyal followers. He could have abdicated the throne and lived in exile at the Vatican, like other Saxon kings deposed by the Vikings. Instead, he decided to fight for his throne.
During the 9th century much of Britain was a vast wilderness. There were great unbroken oak forests, thousands of miles in extant including Selwood, Ashdon, and Andredsweald. Heaths and great wetlands existed on less well drained sites. The rest was farmland. Very few people lived in towns or abandoned Roman ruins. The population of Wessex was an estimated 500,000, compared to a population of 5.3 million today. Alfred and his men found a 2-acre hill accessible only by boat in the middle of a marsh. An alder break hid the island. (Alder forms scrubby thickets difficult to penetrate.) Today, the island is known as Athelney, and it’s located on the Somerset Levels. It’s no longer a marsh, but instead is drained farmland that would be unrecognizable to people who lived here in the 9th century. Alfred and his followers lived off the land here. They fished and hunted and robbed Viking foraging parties. They started fighting a kind of guerilla warfare from this hidden base. The wilderness around them abounded with roe deer, wild boars, feral goats, rabbits, wolves, beaver, ducks, and geese. This untracked wilderness allowed Alfred to regroup and regain support among the locals.
Alfred raised an army of 4,000 peasants and farmers who marched against the Vikings and defeated them in battle. He forced the Viking King Guthrum to leave Wessex. Alfred ruled Wessex until his death in 899, and he laid the groundwork for his son, Edward, to unite all the kingdoms into the nation of England. Alfred established a defense in depth system, having fortifications built throughout his kingdom. He developed an alternating system of service with half the men serving in the army, while the other half worked on their farms. This reduced famine and desertion. He founded the English navy, so ships could patrol against Viking raiders. He allowed some noblemen to build trading warehouses on the rivers and promoted the development of towns within abandoned Roman ruins. These steps created a middle class. He also promoted literacy and education, improving communication with the bureaucrats who helped him run the country. He married his daughter to the king of Mercia, in effect merging the 2 most populous kingdoms in England. England became too strong for Vikings to prey upon, and they focused on invading and conquering French kingdoms. Descendents of these French Vikings didn’t successfully invade England again until 1066.
Leopards lived across much of Europe from 1.2 million years until 22,000 years BP. During the Last Glacial Maximum leopards disappeared from most of Europe because suitable habitat was transformed into cold desert grassland and glacier, both unfavorable habitats for this otherwise adaptable cat. Their range in Europe likely contracted during previous Ice Ages but expanded when climate became warmer. Genetic evidence suggests European leopards diverged from African leopards between 710,000 years ago and 463,000 BP. They may have ecologically replaced European cougars (Puma pardoides). Later, lions (Panthera spelaea) and hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) also expanded out of Africa and together they ecologically replaced European tigers (P. gombasoegensis). Recently, many new specimens of European leopards have been found in Pyrenean Mountain caves including Cova 120, Tut de Fustaya, Cova s’Espasa, and Grotti de la Carriere. Some scientists published a paper this year describing these new specimens.
The Pyrenees Mountain Range is on the border of France and Spain. Recently, many fossil specimens of Pleistocene leopards have been found in caves there.
The European cave leopard had skulls that resembled the skulls of snow leopards, suggesting they occupied a similar ecological niche. I don’t like the name “cave” leopard. >99% of “cave” leopards likely never stepped inside a cave in their lives.
Specimens of European leopards found in Pyrenean Caves.From the below referenced paper.
The scientists who published this paper believe European leopards were most common in the mountain regions. The skulls of European leopards resemble snow leopard (P. uncia) skulls, and the latter inhabits alpine regions. (Genetic evidence suggests snow leopards are more closely related to tigers than leopards.) However, in my opinion, the belief that they mostly inhabited mountains is logically flawed. Caves are more common in mountainous regions, and this explains why there are more leopard remains found in mountain caves. European leopards were likely widespread over all kinds of habitats in Europe, just like modern leopards are capable of living in many habitats today. I also take issue with the use of the adjective, cave, for the bears, lions, hyenas, and leopards that lived in Europe during the Pleistocene. >99% of them never stepped into a cave during their lives. Caves are just places where their skeletons are most likely to be preserved.
Some of the caves were leopard dens. Most of the other fossil remains found there are animals leopards probably preyed upon such as horse, roe deer, ibex, marmot, red fox, and wild cat. Other animal remains found in caves include bison, red deer, hyena, lion, cave bear, brown bear, wolf, and raven.
Leopards are amazing predators. This video shows a leopard seemingly making a foolhardy attack against a gang of large male baboons. A leopard vs just 1 large male baboon would be risky enough, let alone against several. The leopard looks like a goner. Instead, the leopard escapes and flees into the brush. A macho subadult baboon joins the others in the chase, and the leopard successfully ambushes him. There was a method to its madness.
Reference:
Prat-Vericat, M. ; et al
“A Review of Pyrenean Pleistocene Leopard Paleoecology, Paleobiology, and Adaptive Convergence with Snow Leopards”
Humans could not colonize regions with cold climates until they learned how to sew furs together into warm clothes. Needles could be made from stone, but bone is easier to work into needles, so bones were more commonly used to manufacture needles during pre-historical times. The earliest evidence of humans using needles dates to 40,000 years ago in Europe. Neanderthals lived in Europe earlier than this, and they must have also had this technology. Needles are proxy evidence of humans making clothes from furs sewn together. Ancient evidence of bone needles is rare and fur clothes even rarer because they are organic and unlikely to be preserved. Evidence of needles has been found at the La Pele site in Wyoming dating to 12,900 years ago. Scientists recently analyzed these bone needles and identified which types of animals they came from.
Humans in Wyoming used fox, cat, and hare bones to make bone needles. These are the likely species, but they didn’t actually identify them to the species level. Chart from the below referenced study.
Archaeologists found 32 bone needle fragments from 11 specimens. They were able to determine which types of animals they came from by studying the peptides in the bone needles. Different animals have different combinations of peptides and can be identified. A peptide consists of 2 or more amino acids, and they are shorter than proteins which consist of 50 or more amino acids. The scientists who participated in this study identified 3 red fox, 4 hares, and 1 cat. They couldn’t identify the others. The hare was either a snowshoe hare or a jack rabbit. The cat might have been bobcat, Canadian lynx, cougar, or the extinct pseudo-cheetah. The canid was probably a red fox. People likely trapped these animals. Although they may have been eaten, the primary use of these animals was for their fur. Their bones were also used to manufacture needles. These animals have tightly spaced hairs that trap warm air next to skin and are exceptionally good for making warm clothes. The Folsom Culture, a people whose lives revolved around hunting bison during the early Holocene, utilized hare almost as much as bison.
Reference:
Pelton, S. et. al.
“Early Paleoindian Use of Canids, Felids, and Hares for Bone Needle Production at the La Pele Site, Wyoming, USA”
For years I joked I was going to learn how to play the xylophone, so I could attract groupies with big boobs. Imagine the ludicrous site of an elderly man (I’m 63) capturing a following of voluptuous women by mastering an instrument that went out of fashion 80 years ago. I really do love the way the xylophone sounds though, and when my wife requested a keyboard for Christmas, I decided I would use it to learn how to read music, then really learn how to play the xylophone. I purchased a glockenspiel instead because it was cheaper, and now I’m learning easy songs and riffs to play on it. I became curious about these types of instruments and researched the origins of them. Striking different keys to get different sounds is an ancient concept, likely pre-historic.
Xylophones may have been invented separately in Africa and Southeast Asia, though I hypothesize an early form of xylophone may have been brought out of Africa when the first Homo sapiens left the continent 50,000 years ago. The earliest known xylophone existed in Southeast Asia 1200 years ago. It’s similar to the harmonium, an instrument known to have existed in China 4000 years ago. A harmonium is simply a xylophone with vertical keys instead of horizontal keys. Xylophone is a Latin word meaning wood sound. The earliest mention of a xylophone in Europe dates to 1511. Folk musicians in Central Europe played xylophones 200 years earlier than this, and they likely adopted the instrument following the Mongol invasions by the Khan dynasty. The Mongols massacred many Europeans, but eventually opened up a cultural exchange, bringing Chinese trade, after they were done killing and pillaging.
This is a primitive type of marimba with fire-cured wooden keysand gourds used as resonators.
A panharmonicon with vertical keys instead of horizontal.
African slaves brought knowledge of how to build marimbas to Guatemala and southern Mexico about 500 years ago.
The vibraphone was invented in 1921 and is simply a marimba with metal keys instead of wooden.
An early form of glockenspiel. A glockenspiel is a xylophone with metal keys instead of wooden. They are also called bells. Bells can be used instead of metal keys.
A marimba is a xylophone with resonator pipes below the keys. The earliest known occurrence of the marimba is from southern Mexico and Guatemala in 1545. The technology to build a marimba came from African slaves who played the instrument. Africans fire-roasted wooden boards and placed them over gourds. Today, marimbas use metal pipes instead of gourds. The length of the boards determines which key they sound like.
Herman Winterhoff invented the vibraphone in 1921, and this instrument surpassed the popularity of the xylophone and marimba among jazz musicians during the big band era. A vibraphone is simply a marimba with metal keys instead of wooden keys, and they also have resonator pipes below the keys. Lionel Hampton popularized the vibraphone during the big band jazz era of the time, and he was a popular member of the Benny Goodman Orchestra.
I figured out how to play the riff used when Benny and Lionel alternate solos. I think I’m going to have to learn Hampton’s solos by watching old videos of him playing because I don’t think his parts are written down.
Augusta Martiel invented the modern glockenspiel during 1886, but it is based on an ancient Chinese use of bells to produce melodies. Some musicians simply refer to a glockenspiel as bells. A glockenspiel is a xylophone with metal instead of wooden keys.
I’ve been learning to play songs on the glockenspiel for about a month now. Glockenspiels cost about half as much as a vibraphone, but once I improve and can play 500 songs, I might spring for one. I think they sound nicer. I’ve learned to play “When the Saints Go Marching In,” “God Bless America,” “House of the Rising Sun,” “Chattanooga Choo Choo,” “The Girl from Ipanema,” “Hall of the Mountain King,” “Werewolves of London,” and “Something” and “Ob La Di Ob La Da” by the Beatles. I can play several cool rhythm and blues riffs, and the basic bass line for most 1950’s rock songs. I figured out how to play a Lionel Hampton riff from Benny Goodman’s “Stealing Apples. My goal is to someday play as well as him. I’ve struggled figuring out how to play “Under my Thumb.” I think I have the notes correct, but the Rolling Stones used a marimba, and the song just doesn’t sound right on a glockenspiel.
The Yearling is a novel written by Marjorie Rawlings who had it published in 1938. She won the Pulitzer Prize for literature the following year, and this novel was adapted into a 1946 movie, starring Gregory Peck. The story was also adapted for television in 1994. I just finished reading this novel for the first time, and I agree with the critical praise Rawlings received for writing such a classic. She lived on a 72-acre orange orchard in north Florida when she was writing the book. She was not a native southerner, but she befriended her Florida cracker neighbors and took copious notes of their speech patterns and personal histories. The characters in The Yearling were based on people she met in real life, and accordingly they seem very real. Rawlings had an excellent ear for dialogue, and the dialect her characters speak is exactly like the way people used to speak in this region. The story takes place in north Florida during 1870 when the region was still a wilderness. Rawlings also took notes of the flora and fauna of this region, and she spiced her novel with accurate descriptions of the natural beauty of the region. Her descriptions of the natural history are the focus of this essay.
This is the house Marjorie Rawlings lived in at Cross Creek, Florida. It is now part of a state historical park.
The area where the story takes place is today part of Ocala National Forest. A variety of landscapes occur here today and were described in her novel. These include sandy scrub pine, longleaf pine savannah, cypress swamp, hardwood hammock, lakes, and springs. The family in the story lived on Baxter Island, named after the family. It was not an island surrounded by water. Instead, it was a hardwood hammock with more fertile soil than the surrounding sandy scrub pine wilderness. The family was too poor to have a well dug, so they got their water from a nearby seepage spring, and the mother used rainwater to wash clothes. They grew corn, black-eyed peas, sorghum (for syrup and chicken feed), corn, and sunflowers (for chickens), sweet potatoes, tobacco, collards, and onions. For fruit they had wild oranges, pomegranate, mulberries, blackberries, peaches, plums, and scuppernongs. Their livestock consisted of a work horse, a milk cow, some pigs and chickens, and hunting dogs. They depended upon wild game to supplement their larder, and they frequently ate bear, deer, squirrel, rabbit, and turtle. There was one scene when they went fishing for bass. The area was near the St. John’s River which flows into the ocean. Unusually high tides sometimes brought saltwater mullet and blue crabs into nearby lakes.
Birds are often mentioned in The Yearling. Rawlings was confused about the ivory-billed woodpecker. This extinct species was known as the “Lord God bird,” but Rawlings writing suggests she wasn’t aware the ivory-billed woodpecker and the “Lord God bird” were one and the same species. There is a scene in the book when the father and son admire the beauty of a whooping crane mating dance. Rawlings also mentions the scrub jay, a bird endemic to the region. Other birds mentioned in the novel include red birds (cardinals), mockingbirds, owls, buzzards, and bitterns. She refers to grackles as jackdaws.
Predators troubled the family, and the father set traps and tried to prevent their depredations upon their livestock. A black bear known as “Ole Slewfoot” killed one of their hogs and their calf, causing the father to go on a non-stop bear hunt. They hunted foxes that were ravaging their corn field, and a trap caught an albino raccoon. They made the albino raccoon skin into a purse. The father used panther oil to treat his arthritis. Alligator meat was used as dog food. And of course, there were several accounts of deer-hunting. The boy adopted a deer fawn after his father killed the mother deer to use its liver in an emergency effort to draw rattlesnake venom from his bloodstream.
A variety of environments occur in the Ocala National Forest, site of the events depicted in The Yearling. Ridges hold dry sandy scrub forests, uplands were open pine savannahs, valleys were cypress swamps with hardwood hammocks.
Swamp in Ocala National Forest.
Spring in Ocala National Forest.
Pine flatwoods in Ocala National Forest. This site needs a fire pruning.
Scene from The Yearling when the father and son celebrated the killing of Old Slewfoot.
The lonely boy living in a wilderness with few friends adopted a deer fawn for companionship.
Some of the scenes in the book are not realistic. A diamond-backed rattlesnake bit the father in the arm. He immediately found and killed a deer (a convenient coincidence that one was available), removed its liver, and placed it on the snake bite to draw out the venom. There is no way this would work. To detoxify the venom, a blood vessel would have to carry the venom to the liver. The scene was likely based on an old wives tale. The characters supposedly ate bear’s liver. Rawlings was unaware that bear’s liver contains toxic levels of Vitamin A. She is not the only fiction writer who has made this mistake. T.C. Boyle also wrote a story that depicted people eating bear’s liver.
Another unrealistic occurrence in the story is a plague known as the black tongue that devastated the local wildlife after a prolonged rainy spell. I can find no reference to a disease known as black tongue that wipes out many different species of animals. The plague results in a hungry pack of 36 wolves that invade the Baxter homestead because they can’t find any natural prey to eat. The wolves that lived in Florida never ran in packs even half this size. Eventually, the man and his neighbors kill all the wolves in the area–something that did happen. Florida black wolves were extinct by 1917.
The story revolves around a lonely boy and the pet fawn he adopts. It’s a real tear-jerker. His only friend, a disabled boy, dies in the middle of the story. Then, in the end, the boy is told to destroy his pet because it was eating the family’s corn, a crop they depended upon to put bread on the table. It’s a great novel but sad.
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