Evening star., 1935-12-08
ALL COLLIDERS MAY FACE COURT AVIATION


ing for a few million years, when the |
need of adjusting to new climatic |
conditions brought about the end Of |
the clumsy, numbering dinosaurs.
Some evidence of coolneSs is afforded |
by the very existence of the conifers. |
THE logs of the ancient forest, so
= far as it has been possible to
identify them, were relatives of the |
cedars. They had strange companions.
Beside them, as the scene can be re-
constructed from the known lower |
cretaceous fora Of Maryland and !
Virginia, grew ferns 60 feet high, ex-
tinct for a million generations in |
this part Of the world. Perhaps the |
most striking trees were horse-tails, Of |
the type to be found on the borders |
of any nearby swamp today. But the |
present horse-tails are only or
feet high. These lowered from |
so to 80 feet. Equally fantastic were
the giant clum moses, or ground !
pines. Their descendants are to be |
found nearby today. They were ever
green vines which crawled along the
ground.
One tree in this old forest would
have seemed like an old friend to
Washingtonians of today. 1t is the
one living thing that has survived
without much change through l20,-
100000 years. This was the ginko.
The ancient forest probably con-
tanned the distant ancestors of most
of the evergreen trees of today but
their appearance would have been
quite different than the trees of
modern pine or hemlock forest. For
the most part, as the vegetation of
the time has been tentatively recon-
structed by psychologists, they were
tall, slender trees, unbranched except
at the top.
If any Towering vegetation was
present at ALL it was very primitive |
and probably the blossoms were col |
| orleSS. Flowering plants belong to |
the new life" of the paleontologists. |
They appeared in great profusion, and |
apparently quite suddenly as sudden |
ness can be reckoned In geological
time, few million years later. The |
grass family, which may have thrived |
along the stream sides of the ancient |
forest, contained the ancestors of the |
present grasses, palms and lilies but |
still was quite undifferentiated. There |
was probably little "underbrush" In
this forest 1t was a time of gigantic |
ism, such as usually marks the be-
ginning of the end of a period in evo- |
lutionary history, |
THE forest doubtless contained ami
NAL life but, with a single excep-
ton, this must be reconstructed in the |
imagination from other middle creta- !
ceouS remains. The exception is a
boring beetle. 1t is very similar to- |
If not identical with, an insect that |
sometimes infestS cedar trees today. |
This lowly creature may constitute the |
single unchanged animal survival |
Birds certainly were lacking but it is
entirely possible that pteranodons-I
black, flying reptiles more fearsome |
| and repulSive than any bat-sometimeS |
lurked in the lower branches. Horri- !
bic archaic reptiles may have pursued
the boring beetles up the straight, !
jointed trunks. There were no snakes !
even remotely resembling the serpents
of today, although their ancestry prob
ably was represented in the forest |
creatures. The true snakes came |
along later with the flowers, the birds |
and the mammals.
This forest grew in a rather non
descript period, so far as local animal
life is concerned. This may have
been very diverse and abundant, but
it left few traces in the form of fossils. |
Dinosaurs, although not the monster
whose remains are found in the Far
West, certainly lived in this part of
the country at the time Some of
them, although not exact contempora-
rieS, left their footprints in rocks of
Loudoun County, Va. There we're
doubtless many smaller dinosaurs.
Mammals, it is almost certain, were
not present in this forest. They also |
appeared quite suddenly in North |
America few million years later-a |
wierd, clumsy, ill-asSorted lot Super
f1cially they probably looked more like
the reptiles whose territory they in |
vaded than like the -blooded /
creatures of today. Where they came |
from nobody knows. 1t is almost GER
tain that they did not evolve from the |
ancestral reptiles in this part of the |
world. Some paleontologiSts used 70 |
maintain that they arose somewhere |
near the North Pole and worked their |
way southwark. The theory still is |
about as good as any.
The floor upon which this old forest |
grew Is known to biologists as the
Potomac formation" 1t is one of |
the important American geological |
horizons. There are outcroppings all |
around Washington, especially west of |
Rock Greek. 1t was piled up for 20 |
feet or more on a bed of ancient |
crystalline rock Sloping gently east
ward towards the sea.
At the time the woodland fourished
this was fiat. low-lying land. North |
America was cut almost in two by a
great inland sea running from the Gulf |
of Mexico to the Arctic.
The existence of this fossil forest so |
close to the District was unsupported |
u1Ii t"o years dSo "AiCii Soiiic Vi tliC
black Ignite logs were discovered by |
two Takoma Boy Scouts, Floyd A. |
Rapp and Douglas Graham, while on |
Saturday afternoon hike along the |
brook. They reported their find to |
their Scoutmaster, James H. Benn Of
the National Museum Staff. Mr.. Benn |
Immediately recognized the importance
Of the discovery, not only as natural
curiosity but for the light it would
throw on local paleontology and the
hiefo,v of tho nisfr;ct aroo IN varv