Evening star., 1935-06-06
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field.
Laboratory and Study.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

About 20.O000 900 years ago some of
the strangest. creatures the earth has
known inhabited the Cobb Desert of
Central Asia.
They were the shovel-tusked maSto-
dons-elephants whose lower Jaws
were elongated in the form of ShOvels.
These shOvelS took the place OF tuskS
in other elephants One Of them was
about the size of the ordinary coal
scoop.
These curious tooth formations OBJ
viOuslv were in some way associated
with the food habits of the animals. but
the association has puzzled paleontol-
ogiSts because. even when the crea-
lures were in their heydey the land
was desertlike and food must have
been scarce. Where could an elephant
have found enough to eat in this desc
late land to have survived at ALTO
say nothing of Shoveling food into its
stomach in ScoopfulS? The mystery
was increased by the fact that no
fossil plants of any kind were found
associated with the elephant bones.
The problem has been solved by DR.
Ralph w. CLANCY. paleontologist OF
the Carnegie Institute of Washington
through the identification of plant re-
mains found in rock formations OF
about the same period in the same
general region. The animals lived on
water lilies and other SuCculent swamp
plants. which they sCooped up by the
roots and swallowed. mud and all
The fossils found in the Cobb rocks by
the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin and
sent to Dr. Chaney'S laboratory for
identification were all of close 'rela-
tlveS to the vegetation which would
be found in a swamp today.
When the shovel-tusk bones first
were brought to America. DR.. Henry
Fairchild Osborne of the American
Museum of Natural History suggested
that the elephants must have been
swamp dwellers. Their strange dental
apparatus was not adapted to any
other form of feeding. The ana
tomical adaptation had become neces-
Sarv with the disappearance of the
abundant herbage upon which ele-
plants are accustomed to feed. The
problem was to find the SwampS.
The Identification of swamp vege-
tation in rocks of the period. DR.
CLANCY says, leaves no question but
that the swampS existed.
* X
THE probable causes of the disap-
pearance of the shovel -tuskers at the
close of the Tertiary period DR.
CLANCY writes in a report OF his
work, was the drying up Of the lakes
of Central Asia and Western North
America. resulting in the temporary
elimination of the plants on which
they fed Any animal as highly spe-
cialized as these elephants, with Jaws
and teeth suited only to special sort
of food-getting, faces the certainty
of extinction if living conditions
| change so as to destroy his fooo
| supply
In arid regions of these continents
| in modern times lakes even many
| square miles in extent have beer
known to become dry during a series
of rainleSs years. Goose Lake, extend
| ing across the border of Northwest
ern California into Oregon, is showr
on most maps as a water BODY 81
miles in length and 10 miles wide
AS a result of several arid years fol
lowing 1920. this lake was SO nearly
| dry in 1880 that there was exposed
on its bottom the wagon tracks OF thu
forty-niners who crossed this regior
during an earlier period of drought.
The accounts of these hardy mi
grants. telling of climate having
less rainfall than during the year,
following. have been considered a!
cyaeeerations of old-timers. The un'
covering of their wagon tracks on thu
bottom of Goose Lake proves de
! c1sively that Q series Of arid year