Ice Age Boy Shows Linkage to Both Western Europe and Native Americans

Ghosts of the Heart, the soon to be released prehistoric adventure
sequel to Shadows on the Trail by John Bradford Branney.  

More evidence that Europeans and just not Asians first populated North America. I think the big question now is when North America was populated. Clovis First thinking has gone the way of the buggy whip and new archaeological evidence on the east coast continues to push the entrance date into North America further into the past.    

Exciting times for North American archaeology!


Ice Age Boy Shows Linkage to Europeans and Native Americans

Holiday Book Special

                     Have an Adventure for the Holidays!

There is no better gift for the holidays than a book! Take an adventure that transports your mind to another time and place! While supplies last, I am selling signed copies of any or all of my three books for the holidays.

Shadows on the Trail takes place at the end of the Ice Age on the plains and mountains of Texas and Colorado. The end of the Ice Age was a time of global warming, rising air temperatures and melting ice caps and glaciers. It was a time when several large mammal species went extinct and when small bands of humans roamed the mountains and plains attempting to survive in an unforgiving and violent world. This is a tale of three prehistoric tribes whose paths collide, culminating into an emotional thriller loaded with predatory animals, hostile encounters with other humans, and the unpredictable forces of nature.

Saving Miguel takes place in the not too distant future when the global economy collapses into the deepest abyss the world has ever known, pushing over seventy-five per cent of the world’s population into poverty. Most of these people lose to this global economic crash. Security, money, dreams, and most importantly, hope for the future all destroyed by the greed of a few. Out of this world comes an eight-year old boy named Miguel who initiates a roller coaster ride of events that turns this world upside down. Miguel is just a boy but he is the only hope the world has left…

Ghosts of the Heart is the second book in the Shadows on the Trail trilogy, the continuation  of the Folsom People’s journey from present-day Texas to the idyllic North Country at the end of the last Ice Age. The Folsom People faced so much adversity in Shadows on the Trail that the adventure quickly outgrew the first book. The adventure continues on the prairies and mountains of present-day Colorado as the Folsom People battle predatory animals, hostile humans, and the forces of nature in a harsh and unpredictable world. Publication will commence for Ghosts of the Heart in December 2013. Preorder it now and enjoy all three adventures! 

Prices for author-signed books are as follows;

      ·         Any of the three books signed by the author for $22 each, U.S. postage included.*

·         Shadows on the Trail and Ghosts of the Heart signed by the author for $42, U.S. postage included.*

·         All three books signed by the author for $50, U.S. postage included.*

Checks and money orders, or Paypal are all acceptable means of payment. Offer is good while the supply of books lasts. Contact the author on Facebook at Shadows on the Trail by John Bradford Branney or email to arrange your order.   

Unsigned copies of any of these books are available at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and several other booksellers in paperback and e book.  

*If the publication date of Ghosts of the Heart goes past the Holidays for any reason, the buyer will receive a gift certificate from me for the book and it will be shipped immediately after publication.    

Prehistoric Conflict in the Shadows on the Trail Quadrilogy!

CLICK to ORDER Shadows on the Trail

       Shadows on the Trail is loaded with conflict; beast against beast, man against beast, man

against  man, and man against his own fate. Conflict was not uncommon in the prehistoric world, just

search the Internet with the words prehistoric conflict or prehistoric murder and there are literally

hundreds of links describing all kinds of prehistoric conflict, going all the way back to humans killing

Neanderthals. When it comes to human conflict, the weapon systems may have changed through

history but human nature hasn't.

The Weapon Tips of Choice. In Shadows on the Trial,
the Folsom People used the top projectile point type for their spear tips
while the Mountain People used the projectile point at the bottom.
Both spear tips are equally lethal to man and beast! 

         The below passage from Shadows on the Trail  demonstrates one particular man against man

conflict in a prehistoric world that is large enough for both groups of humans to live in harmony, but

too small for them to avoid conflict with each other. For those of you who have not read Shadows on

the Trail, I am not going to disclose too much information about this conflict. I will tell you that Ei

Hanit was the leader of a warring group of people called the Mountain People. Here, the Mountain

People were battling two other tribes in the close confines of the haunted Spirit Rock Canyon.

Ei Hanit ended the warriors’ chaos with his booming voice, screaming out orders to the warriors. Ei Hanit, a spear in one of his hands and a massive war club in the other, rallied his warriors back up the canyon, away from the rock wall. The warriors jumped over and crawled through the downed pine trees, heaving spears at the hunters. Now organized, the warriors methodically moved up the canyon, launching spear after spear at the outnumbered hunters. The hunters’ ambush had temporarily surprised the large force of warriors, but the tide of the battle had now turned in the warriors’ favor. Spears flew at the hunters from every direction as they hid behind boulders and trees.

            “KILL THEM ALL!” Ei Hanit roared above the sound of Chindi.
            The warriors had made enough progress up the canyon that soon they would overrun the position of the hunters. Ei Hanit smelled victory and screamed at his warriors, rallying them to push forward and launch more spears. The warriors advanced up the canyon, killing hunters when they found them. Avonaco, Hexaka, and seven hunters were still alive and retreating up the canyon, while Ei Hanit and his thirty warriors screamed and chased the surviving hunters. The battle was now a rout, but Ei Hanit would not be satisfied without the complete annihilation of the hunters. It was only a matter of time before the warriors caught up to the hunters and killed them. When Ei Hanit realized the hunters were doomed, he shouted to his warriors, “I WANT THEM ALIVE!” Ei Hanit planned on an entertaining, but sadistic death for the remaining hunters.
           I won't tell you how this battle ends, but I will guarantee that you will be surprised by the outcome. You will just have to read Shadows on the Trail to find out how it actually ends. 

           For those of you who have not read Shadows on the Trail, now is the time. The second and third books in the trilogy are also available around the globe. CLICK for INFORMATION.

     

CLICK to ORDER all THREE books



    

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Shadows on the Trail Trilogy and the Mysterious Folsom People.



Shadows on the Trail - the first book in
a trilogy about the mysterious Folsom People.

Shadows on the Trail is the first novel in a trilogy about the mysterious people called Folsom who roamed North America from about 10,900 to 10,200 years ago. These people did not leave behind any written words or DNA or anything that could tell us more about them as people. The only real evidence that we have of the Folsom People lifestyles are their campsites, kill sites, and their artifacts, including the remarkably well made fluted projectile points that ultimately became the hallmark of their culture.


A Fluted Folsom projectile point,
a surface find from Middle Park,
Colorado.

 

The link below takes you to a documentary video about the mysterious Folsom People. New Mexico PBS produced this video about the Folsom People with guest Dr. Bruce B. Huckell, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology  at the University of New Mexico. The documentary is factual and interesting, but nothing like the high drama action found in my book  Shadows on the Trail, but the documentary is based on scientific facts and hypothesis, based on archaeological evidence.  

I hope you enjoy the short documentary and I really hope you enjoy my book Shadows on the Trail, the first book in the trilogy about the Folsom People. Follow the Author and Shadows on the Trail on facebook at Shadows on the Trail by John Bradford Branney. 

Now, please click the link below for the documentary:

  The Mysterious Folsom People (Click Link)

Ghosts of the Heart, the second book
in the Trilogy.




Click for John Bradford Branney Books

Winds of Eden, the third book
in the Trilogy.  

A Stone Cold Inspiration - SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy

Figure One - Alibates agatized dolomite discoidal biface found by the author on a ranch in northern Colorado in 2010. The type of flaking and its association with four 

Folsom artifacts lead the author to believe this discoidal biface was

associated with the Folsom Complex.

The 4.1-inch-long discoidal biface above was my inspiration for the prehistoric fiction novels in the Shadows on the Trail Hexalogy. The prehistoric hunter who made this discoidal biface used it as an all-purpose tool for scraping animal hides, chopping wood, and cutting through animal bone and tendons. In addition, the prehistoric nomad who carried it also used the discoidal biface as a portable rock supply. When they needed a new stone tool or projectile point, they simply hammered off a flake and made a new tool, right there on the spot.

Figure Two - Was the discoidal
biface on its way to becoming
an ultrathin knife form? 

I found the discoidal biface in northern Colorado on a site where I have documented prehistoric artifacts dating back at least 13,000 years. There was something else interesting about the artifact. The prehistoric nomad made the discoidal biface from Alibates agatized dolomite, a rock type originating from the Panhandle of Texas, some five hundred miles to the south. That led me to believe that the nomad made the discoidal biface in Texas and transported it by foot to northern Colorado, where he lost or misplaced it.

Finding Alibates in northern Colorado is not common. That was the first discoidal biface I had ever found made from that rock type. Why did that prehistoric human carry that large piece of Alibates agatized dolomite all the way from Texas when there were numerous sources of rock within a stone’s throw (pardon the pun) of where I found the artifact? It appears that prehistoric humans were enamored with the beauty of Alibates agatized dolomite, and I can see why. Alibates artifacts are found far and wide from their Texas source. Prehistoric humans either carried the rock from Texas or traded it with other prehistoric humans.       

For those readers unfamiliar with Alibates, it is a very distinctive, multicolored rock with colors ranging from maroon to red and gray to black. Mix in some white and tan with banded shades of pink, blue, purple, and brown, and Alibates exhibits a rainbow of colors. It is apparent that prehistoric people were fascinated with its bright and exotic colors and must have believed that the rock held some mystical power over the animals they hunted. Prehistoric people made some of the finest prehistoric artifacts in existence from Alibates agatized dolomite.     

Figure Three - Side B of the discoidal biface. 
Note the pedogenic (secondary)
carbonate that formed on the artifact.   

Of the thousands of artifacts that I have found, few captivate my imagination like this particular discoidal biface. I do not know why; it is just special to me. When I found that ancient discoidal biface from Texas, my mind went into overdrive thinking about who made it, what he or she was like, and how it ended up in northern Colorado.

The SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy is my six-book series about the people who made that particular artifact, and its journey to northern Colorado, so that I could find it 12,000 years later. 

The SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy is the prehistoric adventure that defines all other prehistoric adventures! A small band of Paleoindians fights to survive in a violent and unpredictable world over 12,000 years ago. The late Pleistocene is a time of dramatic climate change, large megafauna extinctions, and the shaky alliances amongst numerous bands of humans surviving at the time. 

Figure Four - The second edition of the SHADOWS on the TRAIL. 

 Click to Join the Adventure     

   SHADOWS on the TRAIL at better booksellers everywhere.     

                                                  

Prehistoric Man in Brazil Over 30,000 Years Ago?

Shadows on the Trail - the first book in
this prehistoric trilogy. Available
at better booksellers.

In my novel Shadows on the Trail, the Folsom People lived from 10,900 to 10,200 years ago in North America. Based
on current archaeological evidence, the earliest people in North America came around 15,000 years ago. Now, new archaeological evidence is proposing a 30,000 year old date for prehistoric humans in Brazil, based on cave drawings and artifacts found near a fire hearth. That is quite a leap backwards from what has been proposed in the past. 

I would expect a lot of pushback from other archaeologists on this evidence for humans in Brazil over 30,000 years ago. No matter what, it will be fun to watch the evidence go through its due diligence.

I hope you enjoy the article and Shadows on the Trail.      


Prehistoric Man in Brazil 30,000 Years Ago

The Shadows on the Trail Trilogy IS a Matter of Survival!!

Click to Order John Bradford Branney Books



First, a brief update on the status of the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy. All three books are now out! I am working on the fourth book. There is no reason not to add Shadows on the Trail, Ghosts of the Heart, and Winds of Eden to your book list and get ready for the fourth book. You can visit Texas and Colorado about 10,700 years ago without leaving your living room!

For those of you who have already read the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy, I thank you and I appreciate the notes and comments you have sent me in regards to the books. I promise you that the fourth book will not let you down! Now, on with the show!

Figure two - The trappings of modern society. Piled
up luggage at some airport, not a rare occurrence.  

Have you ever noticed how modern-day society has surrounded itself with physical possessions and how many people have become prisoners to their possessions? What would any of us do without the conveniences that surround us? When we are hungry, we go to the refrigerator or a restaurant. When we are bored we watch one of four hundred channels on our high definition plasma televisions. If we want music, we can listen to one of thousands of songs on our iPods or smart phones  The possessions and trappings go on and on. We have become a society that is completely dependent on our modern conveniences. We are spoiled!  
     

To illustrate my point, I am going to cite a recent example from my personal life and compare it to the lives of the Folsom People, the protagonists in the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy. Recently, my wife and I took a four-day trip to California and when we arrived at the airport we each had a suitcase. In addition, I had a stuffed backpack with my laptop, books, and various other electronic gadgetry and essentials. My wife had a laptop roller suitcase with all of her gear. Four days, four suitcases! When we finally boarded the airplane (another amazing transportation convenience), the passengers fought to get their precious possessions stowed in the limited overhead luggage space. I looked around and watched people shoving everything but the kitchen sink into the overhead luggage bins. It gave me pause to reflect about our heroes in the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy, Chayton and the Folsom People.     

Figure three - Dinner time, literally fast food!

Let’s jump into our time machine called the Shadows on the Trail and go back to around 10,700 years ago, the days of Chayton and the Folsom People. They did not have any of the modern conveniences we have today. They couldn't go to a grocery store or a fast food restaurant if they were hungry. If they needed to travel from Point A to B, they did so by walking, there were no cars, buses, planes, or even horses. The Folsom People had to carry everything they owned when they roamed from place to place. All of their possessions were transported by them and their wolf dogs.

                

Below is a passage from the first book of the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy where our hero Chayton was preparing a multi-day crossing of the inhospitable Arid Plains with two other hunters.  The passage describes what Chayton took with him on this difficult journey. He would have to survive an extremely hostile and unpredictable environment with very little. If he and the hunters were going to eat, they would have to find, kill, clean, and cook the food. If they became thirsty, they would have to find water. There were no maps or convenience stores. They would have to hunker down near the safety of their campfire during the night and have to deal with the scorching heat of the Arid Plains during the day.

          Chayton carried a deerskin quiver with five spears on his back and his spear thrower on his left hip. On his right hip, he carried his water pouch and on his back, he carried a hide pouch containing the four remaining inyan wakan or sacred rocks, four spear points, knife blades, a sandstone abrader, a hard wood spindle for fire starting, and several chokecherry patties. On a leather strap around his neck, Chayton carried a stone knife with a handle made from a shortened bison rib. In his hand, he carried a long spear that doubled as a walking staff. Except for a blanket and the hut he was leaving behind, this was all Chayton owned in the world. 

Figure Four - Folsom artifacts from the Author's Collection.

                                                                
            Figure four is a photograph of the stone tools that Chayton might have carried in his deerskin pouch. In the center of the photo, notice the red and gray banded discoidal biface he brought on the journey from his original canyon home in future Texas. To the right of  the discoidal biface are two razor-sharp ultrathin knives used for butchering animals and in the lower left hand corner, an end scraper used for hide work. Resting on top of the discoidal biface are two Folsom projectile points. Add to the hide pouch a tool to create fire and a small amount of dried food and Chayton could survive anywhere. How about you? I know I couldn't.  

Shadows on the Trail Trilogy is not only an action adventure series, it is a testament to human survival. Get your copy now and learn how Chayton and the Folsom People survived!    

Click to Order 

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SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL Book Review

Click to Order Books by John Bradford Branney

For those of you who have not read the Shadows on the Trail Trilogy, beginning with book one entitled Shadows on the Trail, here is what Elmer Guerri, the book reviewer for Prehistoric American, wrote about Shadows on the Trail.

The entire Shadows on the Trail Trilogy is now available for purchase in paperback and e book so if you have not joined the journey of the Folsom People, you might want to jump on the train and order Shadows on the Trail or the entire Shadows on the Trail Trilogy. You will be glad you did and thanks in advance for your support!  

Walking a Mile for a Camel - SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy!

Figure One -  Camelops hesternus. 

    

One of the most enjoyable parts of writing the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy was doing the archaeological and geological research required to make the novels as prehistorically accurate as possible while still maintaining the freedom to create dynamic characters and an intriguing storyline. One of the very first extinct Pleistocene mammals I used in my first book of the hexalogy, SHADOWS on the TRAIL, was Camelops hesternus, an ancestor to modern-day camels. 

I took a bit of literary license in SHADOWS on the TRAIL by using Camelops in a minor role within an intricate plot. My purpose in using the beast was to highlight the climate change occurring at the time. SHADOWS on the TRAIL took place around 12,700 years ago during the Folsom Complex and the Younger Dryas climate event. Currently, there is no archaeological evidence that Camelops survived until 12,700 years ago in North America. As of this writing, the only direct evidence of an encounter between humans and Camelops in North America occurred at an archaeological site 108 miles southwest of Calgary, Alberta, called Wally's Beach. Using radiocarbon dating, archaeologists determined that humans at a future Wally's Beach butchered the camel around 13,300 years ago (Waters et al. 2015), six hundred years before my story in SHADOWS on the TRAIL took place.

   

Figure Two - Butchered camel remains at Wally's Beach represent the only direct evidence
that prehistoric humans hunted the animals in North America. 
(Photo: Brian Kooyman/University of Calgary)

The critical words in my last paragraph were the only direct evidence of an encounter between humans and Camelops in North America. There are several famous archaeological sites in the western United States where archaeologists found Camelops remains, but there was no evidence that humans caused the camels' demise. Some of the sites where archaeologists found Camelops remains were Agate Basin, Blackwater Draw, Casper, Colby, Lindenmeier, Murray Springs, and Lubbock Lake (Haynes 2009: p 48). 

So, I dealt with Camelops and the age discrepancy between current archaeological evidence in my book SHADOWS on the TRAIL. My philosophy toward the Pleistocene megafauna extinctions is simple. Just imagine how many Camelops remains are still buried out there on the land, undiscovered. How many Camelops' remains have urban sprawl destroyed, or sites where the remains weathered away on their own? Stone tools made by humans may have survived all those years, but the perishable bones of Camelops may not have. Fossilized camel remains are still out there in North America, buried and undiscovered, and they may or may not be associated with prehistoric human activity. If they are ultimately linked to humans, the evidence of the human-camel association might be younger or even older than the archaeological evidence found at Wally's Beach. 

When I write my historical fiction novels about Paleoindians in America, my usual tactic is to use extinct mammals with a disclaimer that scientists are never sure whether they have discovered the earliest or the latest survivor of any given extinct species. At Wally's Beach, humans butchered a Camelops sometime around 13,300 years ago, but that does not mean that there aren't younger Camelops remains still buried that met their demise at the hands of Paleoindians. Only time and erosion will bring the truth to bear!  

 

In the passage below from SHADOWS on the TRAIL, three hunters from the Folsom tribe encounter two Camelops.  

 

The larger of the two bull camels stopped at the edge of the mudhole and swiveled his large slender head around on an elongated neck. The camel’s eyes searched for movement while the disproportionately small ears fluttered back and forth, listening for danger. The smaller bull sniffed the edge of the mudhole with huge nostrils, searching for the scent from predators. Each camel took a long, ungainly step into the swampy muck. The camels gazed around, nervously chewing their cuds. Camels were not the savviest beasts around, but millions of years of evolution had taught them to survive. 

The larger bull stepped deeper into the gooey bog. His gangly front legs sank deeper into the muck. Not wanting to go any further, the larger camel stretched his long neck to reach the mud puddle. 

Hidden behind a small grove of cottonwood trees, three hunters waited for the two beasts to become mired in the sticky mess. Each hunter carried several smaller spear foreshafts, a main spear shaft, and a spear thrower or atlatl. A spear thrower or atlatl was an old-world invention that added length to the throwing arm, therefore increasing the velocity of a thrown spear. 

      

   Click to Order

The family Camelidae, comprising camels and llamas, originated in North America during the Eocene Epoch around 45 million years ago. The camel and llama lineages diverged about 17 million years ago, and then around 7 million years ago, camels crossed the Bering Strait into Asia (Buchholz 2021). 

The genus Camelops appeared in North America during the late Pliocene between 5.3 and 2.6 million years ago, and went extinct around 13,300 years ago (see my discussion above on Wally's Beach).  

Figure 3 - Artists' depiction of mother and 

baby Camelops. Image courtesy of 

naturalhistoryexplorer.com 

Camelops was one of six genera in the family Camelidae in North America and existed in the western part of North America, while llamas existed from coast to coast. Since soft tissue is not preserved in the fossil record, scientists are unsure whether Camelops had humps like modern-day camels or looked more like their distant relative: the llama.

Camelops was a physically imposing beast, standing seven feet tall at its shoulders and weighing around 1800 lbs. (800 kg.). Scientists believe it was both a browser and a grazer. Hunting them on foot with spears in the Pleistocene must have been quite a challenge. If anything like modern-day camels, Camelops could have easily outrun its human predators. Ambushing or trapping the beasts in some kind of natural or manmade enclosure would have been the only way for humans to stack the deck in their favor.        

Both camels and llamas were common in North America until the end of the Pleistocene, when they and other large mammals went extinct. In my opinion, there was no single reason for the extinction of camels, llamas, and other megafauna species at the end of the Pleistocene. Human predation and climate change appear to be the most cited reasons for the megafauna extinction. With long pregnancies and wide interbirth intervals, Paleoindians hunting the megafauna just aggravated an already tenuous survival situation.  

 Figure 4 - A paper-thin Folsom spear or dart point. This is 
projectile point type the Folsom People would have made
  and used in SHADOWS on the TRAIL. 
John Bradford Branney Collection.

                                     

2021    Buchholz, Pete

            The Last Camels of North America. Earth Archives. 

2009    Haynes, Gary      

            American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene. Vertebrate                            Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Springer Science. 

2015     Waters, Michael R., Thomas W. Stafford Jr., Brian Kooyman, and L.V. Hills   

             Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the ice-free                    corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada. PNAS, volume 114,                         number 14. 

                                                   
           

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In his eleventh blockbuster novel, BEYOND the CAMPFIRE, Branney catapults his readers back to the Pleistocene.  

John Bradford Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and MBA from the University of Colorado. 

Prehistoric America - Wonderful Pleistocene Mammals

Available at Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com,
and other booksellers in both print and e-book formats. 

The link below is a great little summary article about some of the wild mammals that lurked throughout the Pleistocene in North America (even with the numerous typos in the article it is still interesting).

I have discussed some of these mammals in previous posts and at least one of these mammals made an appearance in Shadows on the Trail.

In the sequel to Shadows on the Trail, at least two of these mammals will make an appearance.

  Prehistoric North America - Wonderful and Interesting Mammals


If you haven't yet had a chance to read Shadows on the Trail it is available on line from various booksellers including Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. 

   

Saber-Toothed Cat or Mtn. Lion? Pick Your Poison

Figure One - Eyes of a hunter! 

She lay on a ledge overlooking the dying pond. From her vantage point, igmuwatogla, the mountain lioness was watching the pond for prey. The water in the pond would soon dry up, and the drought had killed off most of the deer. The lioness was hungry. Her small round ears perked up when she heard a sound. She listened and heard something coming her way in the shadows of the trees. She heard footsteps walking through the crackling dry leaves. Her keen eyes focused on the direction of the sound, but before she ever spotted the prey, she recognized the odor. The scent of deer blood teased her quivering nostrils. Igmuwatogla raised her twitching nose. She heard the snap of a tree branch. Her ears shot forward, and the pupils of her eyes readjusted to the light where the sound came from. The aroma of blood testing her patience. Her shrunken stomach growled in anticipation of a meal. The lioness spotted movement in the trees below. She slunk down the slope of the canyon, listening and watching for the prey. Her instincts told her to set up an ambush and wait for her prey. Igmuwatogla picked up her pace. Millions of years of evolution had made the lioness the perfect predator

The passage in blue above came from the book SHADOWS on the TRAIL, the first book in the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy, a historical book series about Paleoindians 12,600 years ago. The book passage describes how a mountain lioness sizes up her next meal by using the extraordinary senses and instincts that millions of years of evolution had fine-tuned. Who is her next meal? Well, you will have to read SHADOWS on the TRAIL to find that out. If you like Prehistoric America, you won't be disappointed.  

Figure 2 - Smilodon fatalis or a Sabre-toothed

cat fights with a dire wolf over a mammoth carcass at the 

Rancho La Brea tar pits. The dire wolf is already

fatally stuck in the oozing tar. Photo

courtesy of www.50birds.com.

In one of my earlier blog articles titled Dire Wolves Versus Gray Wolves, I explored my decision-making for selecting gray wolves over dire wolves for costarring in my first book SHADOWS on the TRAIL. I used the same decision-making process to select my second predator for the book. My decision came down between the seemingly formidable and extinct saber-toothed cat, Smilodon fatalis, or the amazing evolutionary survivor, the American mountain lion. Below is some of my criteria I used in making my selection. 

 

Figure 3 - The saber-toothed cat reached a
height of 39 inches at the shoulder and a body
length of 69 inches. Photo courtesy of
www.arisonaskiesmeteorites.com.

Based on fossil evidence, one of the great predators of North America for over one million years was Smilodon fatalis, or the saber-toothed cat. It survived near the top of the food chain from about 1.6 million years ago to around 10,000 years ago. Based on analysis from skeletons, the saber-toothed cat weighed between 350 to 620 lbs. and was about the same size as a modern-day African lion. Analysis shows it was built more like a bear than the African lion with heavier forequarters and lighter hindquarters than an African Lion. Based on bone structure, the saber-toothed cat was not as fleet of foot as the African lion. Furthermore, DNA studies have confirmed that the saber-toothed cat is not related to any living feline species. 

Figure 4 - The fictional caveman cartoon The Flintstones
featured a saber-toothed cat named Baby Puss.  

The most distinguishing characteristic of the saber-toothed cat was its large serrated canine teeth which could reach a length of seven or eight inches. Although the teeth were ominous-looking, they were fragile and could not bite through bone. Mechanical analyses have shown that the narrow jaws of the saber-toothed cat only had about one-third to one-half of the biting power of an African lion.

Since saber-toothed cats are extinct so we must interpret their habits and lifestyle from fossil remains. The best place to do the interpretation is at the "gooey graveyard" at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in southern California where over two thousand well-preserved saber-toothed cat skeletons have been recovered and analyzed. Only the dire wolf has a greater concentration of skeletal material at the Rancho La Brea tar pits.

Figure 5 - Size comparison between a human and the saber-toothed cat 

that weighed as much as three to four men. Photo courtesy of

www.unclemacsgardenshed.blogspot.com.

Based on the number of skeletons at the tar pits, scientists believe that saber-toothed cats were ambush predators that preyed on large, slow-moving herbivores such as bison, camels, ground sloths, horses, and mastodons. Its bone structure indicates that it was not suited for preying on quicker, smaller animals. It most likely inhabited forest or heavy brush environments where the cover provided an opportunity for ambushing its prey. The large sample of saber-toothed cat bone material recovered in the tar pits indicates that the animals were scavenging other trapped animals there. Scientists, analyzing the tar pit specimens, found a large number of broken teeth and fractured bones in saber-toothed cat skeletons, and concluded that the trauma causing the injuries came from preying on much larger prey animals. 

The bottom line is that the saber-toothed cat was unable to adapt to a new environment and went extinct with many of the large mammal species that it preyed upon...

What about the American mountain lion? 

Figure 6 - The American Mountain Lion 

The American mountain lion, also known as a cougar, puma, panther, or catamount; is a highly efficient stalk-and-ambush predator. The mountain lion's name is a misnomer since its habitat is quite diverse and not limited to mountains. They are found on the desert and plains, as well as the foothills and mountains. The American mountain lion has the widest habitat range of any large terrestrial mammal in the western hemisphere, spanning from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes of South America! It is the second heaviest cat in the western hemisphere, behind the jaguar. Adult lions stand 24 to 35 inches at the shoulders and from head to tail range from 4.9 to 9 feet. Adult males weigh between 115 to 220 lbs.                

The mountain lion is a solitary, nocturnal animal that pursues a wide range of prey from insects up to ungulates weighing over 1000 lbs. The mountain lion's lean and wiry physique gives it great leaping and short-sprint capabilities. The mountain lion can leap vertically eighteen feet in one bound and jump horizontally forty to forty-five feet. The mountain lion's top speed is between forty and fifty miles per hour. Evolution created this near-perfect predator. 

                      

Figure 7 - Photo courtesy of www.fineartamerica.com  

In addition to its physical strength and performance, the mountain lion has extraordinary senses.  The mountain lion uses its finely tuned sense of smell to locate prey within an area. Once the prey is located, the mountain lion moves its small rounded ears together or independently to isolate the direction of the sound. The mountain lion can open its eye pupils three times wider than a human, letting in much more light for nocturnal conditions. Mountain lions demonstrate a heightened sensitivity to movement and many biologists believe that movement triggers an attack. This theory answers the question as to why most of its natural prey freezes in the presence of a mountain lion. The prey is trying to prevent an attack.

By now you can pretty much guess which predator I picked for SHADOWS on the TRAIL. That does not mean you won't see a saber-toothed cat in my other books. Check out my books and see how I handled the storyline! LINK BELOW! 

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