“Howdy-do! I ain’t got a bit of use for you!”
“What do I care! You’d better back away, black bear!”]
The fossil beds of the Great Plains and other parts of the West contain
eloquent proofs of the richness and variety of mammal life on this
continent at different periods in the past. Perhaps the most wonderful
of all these ancient faunas was that revealed by the bones of birds and
mammals which had been trapped in the asphalt pits recently discovered
in the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. These bones show that
prior to the arrival of the present fauna the plains of southern
California swarmed with an astonishing wealth of strange birds and
beasts (see page 401).
The most notable of these are saber-toothed tigers, lions much larger
than those of Africa; giant wolves; several kinds of bears, including
the huge cave bears, even larger than the gigantic brown bears of
Alaska; large wild horses; camels; bison (unlike our buffalo); tiny
antelope, the size of a fox; mastodons, mammoths with tusks 15 feet
long; and giant ground sloths; in addition to many other species, large
and small.
With these amazing mammals were equally strange birds, including, among
numerous birds of prey, a giant vulturelike species (far larger than
any condor), peacocks, and many others.