Glacial Flora and Fauna

           Glaciers not only formed the landscape around us, but they also dispersed plants and animals in our region.  I was surprised to find through our reading that dinosaurs had likely once lived in the Calumet area.  This idea had never occurred to me before.  Since the land here was above sea level, it would have been a good place for them to reside (Schoon, p. 15).  Unfortunately, their fossils have been corroded by wind and rain (Schoon, p. 15).

There were several large mammals during the Ice Age that are now extinct today.  These include the American mastodon, Jefferson’s mammoth, Harlan’s musk ox, the stag moose, sabertoothed tiger, and giant beaver (Schoon, p. 16).

Mastodon

Mastodons have been extinct for about 10,000 to 12,000 years.  A few of their bones have been found in the Calumet area.  If you go to the Old Jail Museum in Valparaiso, you can actually view one set.  There is another set at Gibson Woods in Hammond (Schoon, p. 16).  The mastodon, as well as the mammoth and giant beaver, lived on plants (Illinois Department of Natural Resources).  The mastodon was seven to ten feet tall and weighed four to seven tons (Illinois Department of Natural Resources). It had a long nose and tusks, like an elephant.  Mastodons lived in open areas at the edges of forests (Ohio Historical Society).  They went to marshy areas to find water.  People hunted mastodons for food (Ohio Historical Society).

(http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/10/texas-man-makes-interesting-find-while-fishing-a-giant-tooth/)

Harlan’s Musk ox

Harlan’s musk ox had long, shaggy hair and horns.  It was about the size of a cow and like the mastodon, the musk ox also ate plants (Illinois Department of Natural Resources).

(http://www.nabirding.com/2012/05/09/attu-the-preparations-begin-part-1/)

(http://www.nabirding.com/2012/05/09/attu-the-preparations-begin-part-1/)

Giant Bison

The giant bison of the Ice Age looked like the bison of today, but was much bigger.  The giant bison wandered in herds together and ate plants (Illinois Department of Natural Resources).  The numerous bison were extinct by the 1830 due to overhunting and loss of habitat (Schoon, p. 46).

(http://palaeos-blog.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html)

(http://palaeos-blog.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html)

Stag- Moose

The stag-moose was a type of deer.  Its name refers to the fact that it has the features of a moose and an elk (Ice Age Animals).  It had antlers like the moose of today do.  It had very long legs, which helped it walk through the wetlands to find plants to eat (Illinois Department of Natural Resources).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag-moose)

Mammoth

Mammoths were very large, weighing up to six tens and having a height of ten to twelve feet.  They had a large nose and long tusks.  Their nose was used to pick up the grasses and plants that they ate.  There were several different types of mammoths during the Ice Age (Illinois Department of Natural Resources).

Here is part two of a two part documentary on mammoths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5n5xqmrWoE

Several fossils of Ice Age mammals have been found in Indiana. Between Monroe and Lawrence counties some crinoid fossils can be found.  Many skeletons and remains of Ice Age mammals have been found in this area as well.  The Joseph Moore Museum in Richmond contains the first mastodon skeleton ever found and the most complete giant beaver skeleton ever found (Camp and Richardson, p. 266).  The museum also holds the bones of a dire wolf and a dinosaur (Camp and Richardson, p. 266). In Rochester, a complete skeleton of a mastodon was found (Camp and Richarson, p. 270).  The skeleton belonging to a mammoth was found in Dekalb county (Camp and Richardson, p. 237).  In a cave in the English Area in Indiana, over 100,000 animal bones were found, including those of a dire wolf and a peccary (Camp and Richardson, p. 137).  Near the Ohio boarder, four partial skeletons of mastodons were found (Camp and Richardson, p. 57).  More mastodon bones as well as the bones of giant beavers and other animals were found in Hancock County (Camp and Richardson, p. 43).  The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis has the largest display of mastodon bones (Camp and Richardon, p. 43).

There are several theories for how so many animals of the Ice Age became extinct.  One theory of how these animals came to be extinct is climate change (Gibbons, p. 22).  The retreat of the Wisconsin ice sheet caused changes in the climate (Gibbons, p. 22).  The winters because colder and the summers became hotter and dry and wet seasons occurred, as opposed to the consistent rainfall before (Gibbons, p. 22).  The animals possibly went extinct from an inability to adjust to the changing climate (Gibbons, p. 22).  Some people believe that thousands of years ago a comet hit the Earth and killed off these animals (Wikipedia, "Quaternary extinction event.").  Another theory of extinction is that humans overhunted the animals (Gibbons p, 23).  Hunters migrated to areas where these animals lived and ended up hunting too much and causing their extinction (Gibbons, p. 23).  One other theory is that the animals were killed off by the spread of diseases (Gibbons, p. 23).  This theory states that humans settled near the animals and spread to them harmful diseases that the animals were not able to recover from (Gibbons, p.24). Although this may have been a contributing factor, is would not have been enough alone to kill off all these species (Gibbons, p. 24).  The theories of overhunting and climate change seem the most plausible to me.  I believe these could work together to cause the extinction.

Prairies had been nearing extinction because of people developing them into pastures, farmland, residential, and commercial areas (Chicago Wilderness).  Because of this, prairies have been restored and protected to prevent them from going extinct.  There are many different types of prairies. We have a few black- soil prairies, which have tall grasses and flowers, in our region.  Two of these black- soil prairies are Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve in Westchester, Illinois and Somme Prairie Nature Preserve in Northbrook, Illinois (Chicago Wilderness).  Dry prairies have shorter sand and include hill and sand prairies (Chicago Wilderness).  Two hill prairies in this area are Shoe Factory Road Prairie Nature Preserve in Hoffman Estates, Illinois and Belmont Prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois.  An example of sandy prairies in this area is the Powderhorn Prairie of Chicago, Illinois.  Dolomite prairies were formed on limestone that was scraped by glaciers.  These kinds of prairies can be seen at Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Lockport, Illinois and the Blodgett Road Dolomite Prairie in Wilmington, Illinois (Chicago Wilderness).

Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve (http://savetheprairiesociety.org/about-2/about-the-prairie/)

A bog is a wet, soggy area of ground where there is standing water.  Northern Illinois has several places where bogs were created in glacial depressions (Illinois DNR).  One bog in our area that can be viewed easily by visitors is Volo Bog State Natural Area in Lake County. There is even a boardwalk that extends into the center of the bog (Illinois DNR).  Cattails, arrowhead, and duckweed grow around the perimeter of this bog.  Inside those there is an area of tall shrubs and further in are tamarack trees.  On the very inside are low shrubs (Illinois DNR).  It is called a quaking bog because it is open at the center (Illinois DNR).

Volo Bog (http://www.answers.com/topic/volo-bog-state-natural-area)

 

Resources:

Answers Corporation. "Volo Bog State Natural Area." Answers. Answers Corporation, n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.answers.com/topic/volo-bog-state-natural-area>.
 
British Broadcasting Corporation. "BBC Documentary Walking with Beasts ep 6 - Mammoth Journey part 2/2." YouTube. YouTube, 12 June 2013. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5n5xqmrWoE>. 

Camp, Mark J., and Graham T. Richardson. Roadside geology of Indiana. Missoula, Mt.: Mountain Press, 1999. Print.

Chicago Wilderness. "Prairies: The Legacy of the Land." Chicago Wilderness. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http://www.chicagowilderness.org/go-outside/prairies/>.

  

Díaz Sibaja, Roberto. "Palaeos, la historia de la Vida en la Tierra: noviembre 2011." Palaeos, la historia de la Vida en la Tierra: noviembre 2011. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://palaeos-blog.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html>.

 

Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "Mammals From Illinois' Past." Illinois Department of Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http://www.idaillinois.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16614coll16/id/7287/filename/7288.pdf>. 

Illinois DNR. "More Aquatic Habitats Teacher's Guide - Illinois DNR." Illinois Department of Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http://dnr.state.il.us/education/aquatic/aquaticillinoismoreaqtchabteachguide.pdf>.

Ohio Historical Society. "Mastodon Habitat." Ohio Historical Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. <http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=401>.

Puschock, John. "Attu: the preparations begin, part 1." North American Birding RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nabirding.com/2012/05/09/attu-the-preparations-begin-part-1/>. 

Save the Prairie Society. "About the Prairie." Save the Prairie Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://savetheprairiesociety.org/about-2/about-the-prairie/>.

Schoon, Kenneth J.. Calumet beginnings: ancient shorelines and settlements at the south end of Lake Michigan. Bloomington, Ind.: Quarry Books, an imprint of Indiana University Press, 2013. Print.

Wikipedia. "Mastodon." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon>.

Wikipedia. "Stag-moose." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 5 Apr. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag-moose>.

Wikipedia. "Quaternary extinction event." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction_event>.