They are food for the large hawks that glide over the land. Big land turtles crawl everywhere, munching plants. On the ground, numberless beetles roll balls of dung made from droppings of the grazers. Singly they bury the dung in underground seclusion - or in pairs they mate and lay eggs which hatch out into maggots which feed on the dung. A few vigorous streams snake through the area providing habitat for numerous beavers.
Some small species look and live like prairie dogs, digging burrows in the soil.
On the wooded banks descendants of the jungle animals make their homes. The Oligocene Epoch ends 23 million years before the present. And so we end our imaginary ride on the satellite and find ourselves in the present again. Today, with our feet planted firmly on the ground, we should consider the ages of the rock layers that surround us. We stand with our backs to the parking lot.