Woodburn City Council Aug 2014Woodburn Oregon site, Ice Age Environments and Fossils
Woodburn City Council 8/11/14
Dr. William Orr, Director
Condon Collection
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History
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The Condon Collection
Dates back over 100 years
Over a quarter million specimens from ~20,000 localities
Housed in Eugene within the Museum of Natural History
The Woodburn ice age fossil collection
Woodand receives…safe storage and ready access to their collection of several thousand specimens
The U. of O. receives… access to the collection and the ability to make it available to the paleontology community for study and research
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The Ice Ages saw up to 3000 feet of ice over Seattle and Chicago but only valley glaciers in Oregon
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An outwash plain in Alaska is a good model for the Willamette valley 12,000 years ago
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A nearly flat fluvial gradient and streams laden with sediment made the Willamette valley a near continuous wetland from Eugene to Portland.
The perfect setting to preserve large mammals
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Thick black peaty soils beneath Mill creek reflect lush vegetation that supported herds of elephants, bison, camels, horses and sloths
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The Harlan groundsloth
About 9 feet tall and 1.5 tons
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Dermal Ossicles from N. harlani
Showing characteristic diamond pattern
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The Ice Age bison
Bison antiquus
about 9 feet high at the shoulders and weighing over 2 tons
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Canis dirus, the Pleistocene dire wolf, about 4 feet high at the shoulders and the size of a shetland pony
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The sabre toothed tiger was actually a bobcat ! The animal weighed over 300 lbs with canines up to 10” long
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Pleistocene short faced bear
A “superpredator”
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The Ice Age beaver
(up to 300 lbs)
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As large as a beagle with paired horns mounted on its nose and huge claws, Epigaulus
was the gopher from hell.
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Upper arm bone of a condor emerging from the muck at Legion Park
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Largest condor known
A 4 million year old monster with a 23 ft wingspan
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The Woodburn beetles have maintained their original bright colors for 12,000 years but they fade to black in seconds when the peat is exposed to air
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Beginning about 11,300 years ago and continuing to 10,500 years ago a wave of extinction of large mammals swept down through the Americas.
This catastrophe moved at about ten miles per year and correlates with the southward migration of humans from North to South America
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Thank
You
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Goldilocks and the three bears---back to front, short faced bear, polar bear and grizzly bear
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Grass Pollen
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Bisaccate Pinus Pollen
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Alder Pollen, triporate
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