http://slothcentral.com/archives/15 A 12,000 year-old mystery in SW Iowa Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:09:54 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://slothcentral.com/archives/15/comment-page-1#comment-17 David Wed, 21 May 2008 18:40:48 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=15#comment-17 Don, Your mother first scenario makes sense. A suckling juvenile has nowhere to go; an older sibling may not know where to go or have the strength to go any where. Conybeare and Haynes (1984) reported that it was the weaned juvenile elephants that had the most difficulty in a drought (ages 2-8). Too old to suckle and not big enough or strong enough to compete for food and water, or escape. Are elephants a good model for Megalonyx? Who knows? That's why we keep digging. . . . Don, Your mother first scenario makes sense. A suckling juvenile has nowhere to go; an older sibling may not know where to go or have the strength to go any where. Conybeare and Haynes (1984) reported that it was the weaned juvenile elephants that had the most difficulty in a drought (ages 2-8). Too old to suckle and not big enough or strong enough to compete for food and water, or escape. Are elephants a good model for Megalonyx? Who knows? That’s why we keep digging. . . .

]]> http://slothcentral.com/archives/15/comment-page-1#comment-15 David Wed, 21 May 2008 16:16:49 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=15#comment-15 Travis, I wondered about the absence of layers too. Asked an expert. The assumption is whatever layers formed when this quiet backwater area was flooded, they were obliterated by animal life stirring up the bottom--e.g. tadpoles, turtles, frogs, insect larvae, wading birds, etc. There's no variation in particle size, color, etc. that we've noticed so none of the flood events stands out as especially serious or distinctive. Travis, I wondered about the absence of layers too. Asked an expert. The assumption is whatever layers formed when this quiet backwater area was flooded, they were obliterated by animal life stirring up the bottom–e.g. tadpoles, turtles, frogs, insect larvae, wading birds, etc. There’s no variation in particle size, color, etc. that we’ve noticed so none of the flood events stands out as especially serious or distinctive.

]]> http://slothcentral.com/archives/15/comment-page-1#comment-10 Don Johnson Tue, 20 May 2008 17:11:46 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=15#comment-10 I may be anticipating a future blog entry, but I'd like to comment on the question "Can you explain the deaths of three sloths by anything other than some kind of catastrophe?" I suppose even a drought could be considered a natural catastrophe. If the adult sloth is the mother of the two recovered juveniles (which of course is a big assumption), maybe the mother died from either illness or injury. The juveniles may have instinctively remained close to the carcass of their mother and died over a period of days or weeks from either dehydration or starvation. Just a thought to consider in this discussion... I may be anticipating a future blog entry, but I’d like to comment on the question “Can you explain the deaths of three sloths by anything other than some kind of catastrophe?” I suppose even a drought could be considered a natural catastrophe. If the adult sloth is the mother of the two recovered juveniles (which of course is a big assumption), maybe the mother died from either illness or injury. The juveniles may have instinctively remained close to the carcass of their mother and died over a period of days or weeks from either dehydration or starvation. Just a thought to consider in this discussion…

]]> http://slothcentral.com/archives/15/comment-page-1#comment-8 travis Mon, 19 May 2008 19:24:23 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=15#comment-8 Isn’t it a bit odd not to see any layers in the clay? Isn’t it a bit odd not to see any layers in the clay?

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