All the Creatures

Did you know that almost all of the mammals that we think of as being native to North America are in reality not? Horses, rhinos, elephants and tigers are in fact native to North America and deer, bison, elk and moose are not. You see about a million years ago, horses, rhinos, mammoths, tigers and giant sloths roamed North America. At the same time deer, moose and elk roamed in Asia.

Roughly 30,000 to 20,000 years ago the area that now has open ocean between Alaska and the USSR was dry land. That allowed not only animals to migrate but humans as well. It is not known why horses, rhinos and the other mammals that were once native to North America disappeared. They were on the North American continent until only 8,000 years ago. There have been fossil finds in Canada and Alaska that put the modern horse in North America just 7,000 years ago. By the same token, why did bison disappear from Asia or did those that stayed behind evolve into yaks?

If you are curious you might want to go to your local book store and learn some more about the subject of ancient mammals. There is one called the Beasts of Eden that is quite good.

Since paleontology is an ever changing science, I do not recommend you buy book on sale that is more than a few years old. A case in point - I have several horse books at home and if they were published before 1978 they blatantly state that the horse developed in Asia, which is not true. Horse fossils were discovered in 1928 in Idaho (that were from horses that lived over 1 million years ago) but the general public was not aware of it until the late 1950’s. Some authors of those books simply took older books and re-wrote the misinformation, without bothering to do their own research on the matter. In the later books the information about the history of the horse had been corrected.

All the Creatures

Did you know that the camel was one of the animals that originated on the North American continent? Along with the horse (that also originated in North America) they migrated to other parts of the globe over 15 thousand years ago. The camel does not trot like a horse but paces, with both legs on each side of the camel moving at the same time in the same direction. This makes for a very ground covering gait that does not jar the rider. The camel can also out run a horse over distance.

The camel has had a very close partnership with humans almost rivaling the use that man has put on the horse. Camels have been used by the US and Australian cavalries for war and exploration into the desert areas of their countries. There have been wild herds of camels in both the USA and Australia at one time, the herds coming from camels released or escaped from their owners.

It is rare that someone has written about the exploits of a camel used in war and I recently came across this book “The Cameliers” a recount of the camel soldiers in the first world war.

You would be lucky to find this book on sale most anywhere, since most books on camels are children’s books or just picture books about camels.

Other interesting facts include the insulating qualities of the camel’s foot. The foot is built in such a way that the hot sandy deserts will not burn or injure the foot. The camel’s hump does not store water but stores a fat reserve, which the camel can draw from for nourishment over a longer period of time than other animals can.

All the Creatures

Those comical little birds at the southern end of our planet, here are a few bits of trivia about them.

• There are about 17 species of penguins
• Penguins are found as far north as the Galapagos Islands
• There is an island off the coast of Western Australia called Penguin Island, named for the penguins that frequent it.
• Unlike some Hollywood movies where different penguin species are shown together, that does not happen in the wild.

Now for a penguin joke, I just couldn’t resist just one:

Why doesn’t the penguin wear tuxedo pants? Because their legs don’t have a long enough inseam.

All the Creatures