One of the recent displays in the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) in Spokane, Washington, was Creatures of the Ice Age. Peter Thomas, a Spokane-based “paleo-artist” and sculptor, uses corrugated cardboard, newsprint, galvanized wire and packing tape to create life-size dinosaurs and Pleistocene beasts.
Shown above is a sloth and a saber-tooth tiger.
The saber-tooth tiger, Smilodon fatalis, isn’t actually a tiger. It went extinct about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch.
The sloth, Megalonyx jeffersonii originally evolved in South America. This sculpture has been nicknamed Monty.
Shown above are a saber-tooth salmon, Oncorhynchus rasdtrosus and a short-faced bear.
According to the display:
“These incredible fish appeared 5-7 million years ago during the Miocene epoch and died out sometime during the Pleistocene epoch. At nine feet long, they are the largest know species of salmon and are also identified by a pair of prominent fangs protruding from the tip of the snout. Plankton may have comprised most of the saber tooth salmon’s diet; inside its gills were extensive gill rakers, bone combs that collected tiny microorganisms from the water passing over them.”
The short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, was one of the largest meat-eating mammals roaming from Alaska to Mexico and California to Florida. According to the display:
“Short-faced bears could reach up to 12 feet high while standing on their hind legs—and could gallop up to 40 miles per hour. Like today’s bears, they were opportunistic omnivores that ate leaves and berries but occasionally scavenged for meat, possibly relying on their huge size to intimidate dire wolves and saber-tooth tigers.”
For many people, the two extinct North American megafauna that come to mind are the “elephants”: the American Mastodon (Mammut Americanum) and the Columbia Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). The American Mastodon generally inhabited forests or woodlands characterized by spruce and evergreen trees. The American Mastodon stood 8 to 9 feet high at the shoulder. The Columbian Mammoth stood up to 13 feet tall and weighed up to 10 tons.
Mastodons originally evolved in Africa about 20 million years ago and later spread into Europe and Asia. With the Bering Land Bridge that once connected Asia and North America, mastodons migrated into North America about 17 million years ago. During the Pleistocene, it ranged from Alaska to Florida. The American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) became extinct about 8,000 years ago.
The mammoth flourished from 16 million years ago until about 11,500 years ago.
More museum photo tours
Museums 101: Montana Entanglements (art diary)
Museums 101: Curious (art diary)
Museums 101: Into the Arctic (Art Diary)
Museums 101: The Little Black Dress (photo diary)
Museums 101: Animal Sculptures (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Sculptures of the Human Body (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Clothing (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Quilts (Photo Diary)