Geography 111 Forest Ecosystem Final Project
University of California Los Angeles
Past Mammals in Los Angeles: Group 17
Group Members: Nicharee Nalumpoon, Lauren Milosky, David Myung,
Gabriela Morales, Kari Miyamoto, Chao Mei Mo, Grecia Moreno,
Shane Miller, Zarouhie Mosikian, and Omeed Modiri
Hello! Welcome to the page of Group 17, one of 29 groups in Professor Tom Gillespie’s Geography 111 class. The class, called Forest Ecosystems, is doing its final project on Sage Hill, the last functioning native California ecosystem on the UCLA campus. It also holds a rich cultural history that strengthens our understanding of California’s past.
The last glacial maximum had cooler temperatures, allowing some plants to exist that now only inhabit Central California. Additionally, there lived a diversity of megafauna, including Saber-toothed Cats, Mammoths, California Condors, and Giant Ground Sloths. These large native mammals existed at Sage Hill until the arrival of Native Americans, who hunted most of these megafauna into extinction. The arrival of the Europeans, in turn, significantly reduced the population of Native Americas through the introduction of hunting and a number of infectious diseases. Combined with forced migration programs, especially accounted for in the 1800s, the population of Native Americans reached zero in the Westwood area. The Bruin, or the Grizzly Bear, the symbol of UCLA, was hunted also to extinction in California around the same time.
Sage Hill is currently home to many native flora and fauna, but invasive species and proposed urban development threaten the site’s integrity as a native habitat. Having toured Sage Hill to discover native plants we learned about in class, we as students recognize both the intrinsic and academic value of Sage Hill, and are assisting Professor Gillespie in its preservation through research and restoration. We have taken steps to further beautify its grounds by hiring a muralist from Venice Beach to paint a picture of what the Sage Hill might have looked like during the last glacial maximum 20,000 years ago. We thank the artist, Jonathan Cirlin, for his time and ability to beautifully depict this.
Sage Hill Website: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/sagehill/about.html
-Written By: Gabriela Morales (Gabby)-
The artist information: Jonathan Cirlin (Artist, Muralist)
Email: espydpt@gmail.com
Flicker: espy-dpt-znc
Instagram: espy_dpt_znc
Facebook: Espy Dpt
Phone Number: 310-739-8160
Lets' Get Started!
Here is our original picture from The La Brea Tar Pits
Here is our finished mural!
Here are the process of the art work!
Lauren gives him a thumbs up!
This is me (Nicharee) smiling :)
Lauren and I went to Sage Hill on Sunday June8, 2014 in the morning to greet Jonathan, our artist.
We talked to him and helped him understand more about our project.
Here is Jonathan starting to put some colors on the wall...
Awwww! Starting to see the animals!
More colors for the animals
Looking Good!!
Keep Smiling! Enjoying our company!
The artist is really talented!
These following two photos were taken by Zarouhie Mosikian.
Zarouhie and Chao Mei Mo went to sage hill the afternoon the artist was here.
The person in the second picture is Chao Mei Mo. Zarouhie did not want her photo to be published. They helped the artist and guided him that afternoon.
Chao Mei Mo (Michelle Mo)
Here are some close-up look of the mural!
Saber-toothed Tiger Eating the Sloth!
The Giant Ground Sloth
Dinner!!
A giant bird eye is looking right at you!
The finished artwork! :D
Now, Lets learn more about the megafaunas that lived in Los Angeles around 50 millions years ago!!
1. Giant Ground Sloth
Megatherium americanun
Megatharium, or the ground sloth, belongs to the family Megatheriidae. It lived in South and North America starting 17 million years ago. Megatherium differed from modern sloths because it did not crawl, but walked. It weighed about 4 tonnes or about 9,000 pounds. Megatherium was an herbibore, most likely it was a browser and was selective of what it ate. Megatherium went extinct around 7,000 years ago.
Szalay, F. S. (2008). Mammalian evolutionary morphology: a tribute to
Frederick S. Szalay. E. J. Sargis, & M. Dagosto (Eds.). Springer.
Bargo, M. S. (2001). The ground sloth Megatherium americanum: skull
shape, bite forces, and diet. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 46(2),
173-192.
Turvey, S. (2009). Holocene extinctions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frederick S. Szalay. E. J. Sargis, & M. Dagosto (Eds.). Springer.
Bargo, M. S. (2001). The ground sloth Megatherium americanum: skull
shape, bite forces, and diet. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 46(2),
173-192.
Turvey, S. (2009). Holocene extinctions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
-Written By: David Myung-
Special! We have this information in Mandarin Chinese!
大地懒别名地懒属于大地懒科。 它们出没于1700万年前。大地懒与现代地懒的区别在于它们直立行走，不爬行。 它们大约重四吨或9000磅。大地懒是草类动物，它们对吃非常挑剔。大地懒在7000年前灭绝。
-Translated By: Chao Mo-
2. The Saber-toothed Tiger (Smilodon)
-Written By Kari Miyamoto-
3. American Mastodon (Mammut americanum)
The Pleistocene Epoch (40,000-11,000 years ago) was the era of large mammals in North America such as the American Mastodon, a distant relative of the ancestor to modern day elephants with a habitat range from Alaska to Florida. The American Mastodon went extinct about 13,00 years ago, either due to human predation or climate change, but fossils of these elephant-like mammals have been found since the 18th century. Mastodons are often confused with mammoths, but they were smaller in size and had cusp-like molar teeth instead of the flat, ridged molars of the grazing mammoths. This tells us that these herbivorous mastodons would obtain their food by biting off the twigs and leaves of trees and bushes. Most of the plants they ate were found in swamps and wet areas of woodlands like the ones found on UCLA's Sage Hill. The giant tusks that mastodon males sported are thought to have been used for stripping off tree bark and a result of male competition for females. Because the mastodon is a close relative of the mammoth, we can assume it had similar social behaviors to present-day elephants, such as a considerable amount of parental care during the first years of a mastodon’s life. It’s amazing that 13,000 years ago these mammalian giants would have been roaming the lands that we live on today.
-Written By Grecia Moreno-
Bonus! We love the bird because we're Californian!!
4. California Condor (Still alive today)
Gymnogyps californianus
Gymnopys californianus, or the California Condor, belongs to the Cathartidae family. They have existed since the late Pleistocene about 4,000 years ago with historic megafauna. Though they used to roam all of North America, today the California Condor is critically endangered. Only 435 exist in total, 230 of which live in the wild in the rocky mountains of California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. As a vulture species, the CA Condor feeds on carcasses and can travel up to 150 miles per day in search of food.
-Written By Lauren Milosky-
What was the climate like back 50 millions years ago?
Fifty million years ago, the Earth was in the epoch that today we know as the Eocene. It began during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred approximately 56 million years ago. From this point, the Earth continued to warm for about seven million years until reaching what is known as the Eocene Optimum, which occurred about 49 million years ago. Although much data about the Los Angeles Basin’s exact climate isn’t very present, based on the above timescales, we can come to a few conclusions about what it was mostly likely like fifty million years ago. During this time period, the ice sheets that are present today at both poles were completely non-existent. Forests covered all parts of the landmasses except for the areas occupied by desert. The more central landmasses, including all of North America, were dominated by Tropical Rainforests which thrived in this warm and humid climate. Because of this climate, much of the flora and fauna in the Los Angeles Basin were dominated by tropical organisms as well. Fossils dating back to this epoch show traces of ancient mammalian species that were similar to modern day primates, rodents, marsupials, and bats. As you would expect with a coastal tropical climate, Los Angeles was utterly dominated by ancient palm trees, as well as Coffee and Laurel trees. The climate in the Los Angeles Basin stayed like this for nearly thirteen million years, although gradually cooling off the entire time.
http://phys.org/news/2012-04-permafrost-million-years-extreme-global.html
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/ctl/cliscibeyond.html
-Written By Shane Miller-
Plant and Flora Diversity
Around 50 million years ago and into the Arcto-Tertiary period, the Geoflora in California was dominated deciduous hardwoods and riparian plants. This included plants in the genus Acer, Alnus, Fraxinus, Platanus, Populus, and Salix (UC Press). Relics from this time period still persist in scattered regions within Southern California. An example of one of these relic is the Faxinus dipetala. Faxinus dipetala, or the California Ash, diverged 45 million years ago and began to diversify 25 million years ago. It is a short, deciduous tree which is preserved today in sloped regions within California, including Los Angeles.
