New Britain herald., 1917-01-09
Wild Life in Worth America Ripalled Only By Africa

The fossil beds of the Great Plains
 of North America and other parts of
 the west contain eloquent proofs oi
 the richness and variety of mammal
 life on this continent at different per-
 iods in the past. Perhaps the mos'
 wonderful of all these ancient faunas
 was that revealed by the bones oi
 birds and mammals which had been
 trapped in the asphalt pits recently
 discovered in the outskirts of Lot
 Angeles, California, These bonei 4
 show that prior to the arrival of the
 present fauna the plains of southern
 California swarmed with an astonigh.
 ing wealth of strange birds and
 beasts. The most notable of these
 are saber- toothed tigers, lions much
 larger than those of Africa; giant
 wolves; several kinds of bears, includ- Z
 ing the huge cave bears, even larger
 than the gigantic brown bears ol Alaska: large wild horses; camels bison (un1ike our buffalo); tiny an ! telope, the size of a fox; mastodons mammoths' with tusks fifteen feet long; and giant ground sloths; in ad- dition to many other species, large and small.
 with these amazing mammala
 were equally strange birds, including
 among numerous birds of prey giant 1 vulture-like species (far larger than l any condor), peacocks, and many | others. l There is reason for believing that | primitive man occupied California and other parts of the west during al l least the latter part of the period l when the fauna of the asphalt pits
 still fourished. The folklore of the
 locally restricted California Indians l contains detailed descriptions of a
 beast which is unmistakably a bison. ! probably the bison of the asphalt pits. ] "The discovery in these pits of the 1 bones of a gigantic vulturelike bird ] of prey of far greater size than the l condor Is even more startling, sincs l the folklore of the Eskimos and In-s ] dians of most of the tribes from Ber-
 ing Straits to California and ths 1 Rocky mountain region abound ip8 i tales of the thunder bird'-a gigan- ! tic bird of prey like a mighty eagle, 1 capable of carrying away people in its
 talons. Two such condolences sug-
 gest the possibility that the accounts
 of the bison and the thunder bird arc
 really based on the originals of tha asphalt beds and have been passed i down in legendary history through
 many thousands of years.
 l Among other marvels our fossil l beds reveal the fact that both cam-3 els and horses originated in North America. The remains of many wide- X 1 1y different species of both animalSs ! have been found in numerous locaH@ l ties extending from coast to coast i1 l the United States. Camels and horses.s l with many species of antelope close 7 1 ly related to still existing forms in. | Africa, abounded over a large part of i this country up to the end of the geo. logical age immediately preceding the l present era.
 "At the time of it's discovery by Col
 umbus this continent had only one 1 domesticated animal-the dog. In
 most instances the ancestors of the 1 Indian dog appear to have been tho | native coyotes or gray wolves, but the, 1 descriptions of some dogs found by the early explorers indicate very diff
 ferent and unknown ancestry Cn-I l fortunately these strange dogs became extinct at an early period, and thus. l left unsolvable the riddle of their { origin.
 Before the discovery of America l the people of the Old World had do-f
 mesticated cattle. horses, pigs, sheep goats and cats; but none of these do- mestic animals, except the dog, exist-a ed In America until brought from | Europe by the invaders of the New World"