Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
smithsonianmag.com
Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
1–10 of 32 posts
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#2I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#3Unfortunate they don't seem to have any pictures in the article of this animal. Just a top level image showing some barges on the river. Anyone have an alternate link that shows images?
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#4Unfortunate they don't seem to have any pictures in the article of this animal. Just a top level image showing some barges on the river. Anyone have an alternate link that shows images?
It’s not even the Mississippi River it’s a log chute arm of the river. If you look up top you can see where the arm ends.
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#5I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Megafauna were actually the norm. Just look at the Dinosaurs and Mammoths. So being smaller is a recent change.
Larger animals are more efficient with their calories, expending less energy per pound vs a smaller animal. Large animals also have a better volume to surface ratio, making it easier for them to keep themselves warm.
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#6I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Cold favors a large body with a higher mass to surface area. But an ice age isn't all ice, snow and eternal winter. There were still seasons south of the ice sheets where the animals lived.
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#7I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Ice age was not that much colder than now. Most of Canada was covered with ice, but most of United States wasn’t. Places which are hot today were warm at the time, and places that are warm were temperate. This means that there is no reason to assume that food was scarce.
Here is a way to think about it: Alaska today is probably colder than southeastern US was during ice age. Is food in Alaska so scarce today that it does not support megafauna? Obviously it’s not, quite the opposite. Same was true about most of US during last ice age.
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#8I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Maybe slower metabolism/heartbeat since they retain heat better
Also, is it a coincidence that tech gets smaller over time? Maybe there is a shared reason why larger systems are easier to implement, at first
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#9I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Ice age was not that much colder than now. Most of Canada was covered with ice, but most of United States wasn’t. Places which are hot today were warm at the time, and places that are warm were temperate. This means that there is no reason to assume that food was scarce. Here is a way to think about it: Alaska today is probably colder than southeastern US was during ice age. Is food in Alaska so scarce today that it…
> Obviously it’s not
To be honest I don't think that's obvious to people who don't know much about Alaska.
Re: Drought Reveals Rare American Lion Fossil in Dried Up Mississippi River
#10I'm always amazed when reading about the sheer size of ice age animals that existed. I kinda get how dinosaurs were able to get so large, due to environmental factors at the time, but you would assume that food was sparse during the ice age. How did the ecosystem support large mammals?
Ice age was not that much colder than now. Most of Canada was covered with ice, but most of United States wasn’t. Places which are hot today were warm at the time, and places that are warm were temperate. This means that there is no reason to assume that food was scarce. Here is a way to think about it: Alaska today is probably colder than southeastern US was during ice age. Is food in Alaska so scarce today that it…
I feel like you're understating it a bit; 20k years ago Manhattan was covered in over a thousand feet of ice. The Wisconsin Ice Sheet was huge and covered a substantial portion of the modern day United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_glaciation#/media/Fi...
