![]() ![]() Even though the Bureau of Land Management recently staved off residential construction on 11,000 acres of the land, historic treasures remain vulnerable to theft, recreational off-road vehicles, and future development. The bones also reveal a Pleistocene-Era ecosystem in balance: plentiful herds of mammoths, bison, and camels grazing on lush landscapes-and carnivores like the dire wolf to keep populations in check.īut discoveries like this could be lost if Tule Springs doesn’t gain greater protection, which is why NPCA and a diverse group of advocates in the Las Vegas community have teed up legislation to designate nearly 23,000 acres as a national monument managed by the National Park Service. Dire wolves appeared to be social animals, and according to some findings, might have even nursed injured pack members back to health, prolonging lives that surely would have been cut short had they been solitary creatures. “There was all this amazing lunch everywhere.”įossils like these paint a picture of ancient wolves that were no taller than gray wolves, only stockier, with large heads and enormous teeth likely used to crack bone. “We knew it had to be there,” Kathleen Springer, senior curator for the museum, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. For nearly a decade, the team has unearthed the remains of mammoths, camels, horses, and other ancient grazers, but this was the first time they came across such a high-profile predator. ![]() The very same month Bonde confirmed his dire wolf fossils, a team of paleontologists from California’s San Bernardino County Museum announced their discovery of two front leg bones of a saber-tooth cat nearby. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |