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Extinct monsters and creatures of other days : a popular account of some of the larger forms of ancient animal life / by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson. With illustrations by J. Smit, Alice B. Woodward, J. Green, Charles Knight, and others.
London : Chapman & Hall, 1910.
Megafauna included kangaroos, wombats, tigers similar to Tasmanain Tigers, possums etc.
Mount Isa Township.
Like Broken Hill Mt Isa is an isolated outback town created because of a mineral discovery in 1923. It was part of the Cloncurry Shire council until it was declared a town with its own local government in 1963. Today it has a population of around 20,000 people but at its peak in the 1970s it had 34,000 people. The city area encompasses a huge unpopulated area making Mt Isa the second biggest city in Australia in land area! The town is basically a mining company town like Broken Hill but unlike Broken Hill and other mining centres in Australia it is such a long way from the coast and port facilities. No mining town is further from the nearest port than Mt Isa. The port of Townsville is almost 900 kms away and the capital Brisbane is over 1800 kms away.
Pastoralism came to the Mt Isa region in the 1860s and 1870s when much of outback QLD was occupied by graziers. The region was known for its mining as the Cloncurry copper and goldfields were not that far away and to the south of Mt Isa was the Duchess copper mine and township. (In 1966 the only major source of phosphate was discovered at Duchess mine.) The rocky outcrops and ranges of the area were attractive to prospectors hoping for another great mineral find after the great finds at Cloncurry in 1872.
An itinerant mineral prospector named John Campbell Miles was camped on the Leichhardt River looking at rock samples in late 1923. He found promising samples and took them to the government assayer in Cloncurry discovering that his samples were 50% to 78% pure lead with copper as well. The QLD government investigated the deposits further as Miles named the field Mt Isa. Businessmen in Cloncurry saw the potential of the area for mining. In January 1924 the Mount Isa Mines Ltd Company was floated beginning their search for investment capital to develop the site. Douglas McGillivray of Cloncurry was a major investor and his funds permitted the new company to acquire mining leases for the relevant areas. Miners flocked to the area and by the end of 1924 a small town had emerged with tents, and a few wooden buildings from other towns in the region. Mt Isa then had a school room, a water supply from the Leichhardt River and stores, hotels and an open air picture theatre!
But it was to take another 10 years before large scale mining began. MIM (Mt Isa Mines) continued to purchases additional mining leases and they searched overseas for capital as the first leases cost them £245,000. On top for this was the cost of underground explorations, drilling, metallurgical tests and plant construction. By 1932 MIM had spent around £4 million with no production, returns or profits. But the size and potential of this project was not underestimated by anyone. In 1929 the QLD government extended the railway from Cloncurry ( it reached there in 1910) via Duchess to Mt Isa. By this time the population was around 3,000 people. Mined ore was carted by road to the smelter in Cloncurry. The township had progressed too with a town planned by the Company with tree lined streets on the river, with a dam for a water supply on Rifle Creek. The mine operations were on the western side of the River and the town and businesses on the eastern side of the River. The Catholic Church opened in 1929 and the Company built a fine small hospital for the town. As the Great Depression hit MIM stopped spending on the development on the town and concentrated on the mines. By this time profits were repaying interest on the loans but the company did not return a dividend on investments until 1947.
The fortunes of Mt Isa Mines changed in the 1930s as Julius Kruttschnitt, a native of New Orleans was appointed mine manager in 1930. He obtained additional financial investment in MIM from the American Smelting and Refining Company and the first reruns on lead production occurred in 1931. By 1937 under Kruttschnitt’s guidance the almost bankrupt company of 1930 was returning profits by 1936. This manager was known for always wearing a collar, tie and suit regardless of the Mt Isa temperatures. He played sport with the miners, his wife contributed to town events and he worked on better housing for the workers. He retired from the MIM in 1953 but remained on the Company Board until 1967. At this time Mt Isa Mines became the largest single export earner for Australia and MIM was the largest mining company in Australia. Kruttschnitt died in 1974 in Brisbane. He received many Australiana and international awards for his work in mining engineering and metallurgy. He really put Mt Isa on the map.
During World War Two the mine concentrated on copper and ceased lead and silver operations as demanded by the war needs. Until this time the mine had concentrated on lead production. Labour shortages were crippling during the War years but the mine continued. Many American troops were stationed here too and the Mt Isa Hospital had an underground hospital built in case of air raids. No bombing attacks were experienced and the hospital was mainly used by nurses on night duty catching up on some sleep in the relative cool underground but the hospital still remains and is operated by the National Trust. It is unlikely that we will have free time when the underground hospital is open to visit it.
After World War Two the fortunes of Mt Isa changed remarkably. Lead prices trebled after the War from £25 per ton to £91 per ton and hence the MIM was able to pay its first dividends in 1947. Workers received a lead bonus to make their wages higher and about three times the amount of average wages in Brisbane. The population of the town doubled in the early 1950s just before Kruttschnitt retired from around 3,000 to over 7,000. It doubled again by 1961 when the population reached 13,000 and it doubled again by 1971 when it reached 26,000. New facilities came with the bigger population- an Olympic size swimming pool, some air conditioning in some buildings, bitumen roads, less dust, more hotels and employee clubs, including the Marie Kruttschnitt Ladies Club! Miners’ wages doubled during the Korean War. It was during this period the rail line from Mt Isa to Townsville became the profitable ever for the Queensland Railways. It was the profits from this line that led Queensland Rail to develop and rebuilt other lines and introduce the electric Tilt train etc. MIM discovered more and more ore deposits and firstly doubled and then trebled production in the 1950s. Mt Isa surpassed Broken Hill as Australia’s biggest and wealthiest mine.
New suburbs were built by MIM, the town became the centre of local government and the Company built a new dam for a water supply on Lake Moondarra with importer sand for a lake shore beach. As more stores opened in Mt Isa Mount Isa mines closed its cooperative store. A large new hospital was opened in 1960; the Royal Flying Doctor Service transferred its headquarters from Cloncurry to Mt Isa; and the town had a new air of prosperity and modernity. The calm soon broke. There was a major split between the Australian Workers Union, an Americana union agitator called Patrick Mackie and the Mine management over pay and profit sharing ideas. All work at the mine stopped during a bitter dispute that lasted eight months. The Liberal Country Party government which included Joh Bjelke Petersen (he was a minster and not premier in 1964) used the police to restrict the activities of the AWU and the Mackie Unionists. Many miners left the town as they could not survive without work and it took some time after the dispute resolution for the mine to restart full operations. Mining restarted in 1965.
Ten years (1974) later MIM financially assisted with the construction and opening of the new Civic Centre. Mt Isa’s population reached its maximum of around 34,000 and the future looked bright. As the ore quality declined the town population declined but MIM found new ways of extracting copper and lead from lower grade ore. The city continued to exist until MIM sold utu to Xstrata in 2003. Since the then town population has been slowly increasing. The local federal MP is Bob Katter who is proposing to create a new conservative party for the next federal election.
Mount Isa Mines Today.
In the 2001 Census over 20% of Mt Isa’s workforce was employed in mining. The town mainly survives because of the Xstrata Mines which took over the previous company, Mount Isa Mines (MIM) Ltd in 2003. Xstrata has invested $570 million in the mines since its takeover. Xstrata today employs over 3,000 staff and 1,000 contractors in the mine. Xstrata is a large multinational mining company with its headquarters in Switzerland and its head office in London. It has mines in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas. It miens coal, and copper primarily in Australia at places as far apart as Mt Isa, McArthur River zinc mine in the NT, Bulga coal mine and Anvil Hill coal mine in NSW and Cosmos nickel mine in WA.
Apart from the mines itself Mt Isa has other infrastructure: a power station (oil fired); an experimental mine dam; and various buildings and works such as the winding plant, shaft headframe etc. Most importantly for the township it also has the copper smelter works. The ore is further processed in the Townsville smelter after transportation to the coast. The Mt Isa smelter produced over 200,000 tons of copper in 2010 and smelted lead and the concentrator refines the ores of copper, zinc, lead and silver. Across all its mines in Australia Xstrata employs almost 10,000 people second only to its workforce in Africa. Xstrata also operates the Ernest Henry copper, gold and magnetite mines 38 kms north of Cloncurry. This group of mines is expected to employ around 500 people on a long term basis. All the ore from these mines is treated in the concentrator and the smelter in Mt Isa. The Isa smelter and concentrator also handles the silver, lead and zinc from the George Fisher( Hilton) mines 20 kms south of Mt Isa. The stack from the smelter, erected in 1978, stands 270 metres high and can be seen from 40 kms away.
Outback at Isa Discovery Centre and Riversleigh Fossil Centre.
This centre was opened in 2003. The Riversleigh Fossil Centre moved into the complex; a purpose built mine called the Hard Times mine was dug and opened to give visitors an underground mine experience; and the Isa Experience Gallery opened with an Outback Park outside. The complex also operates the Visitor Information Centre. The Isa Experience Gallery uses multimedia approaches to bring the history and Aboriginal culture and mining background of Mount Isa to life.
Riversleigh World Heritage fossil site is 250kms north of Mt Isa on the Gregory River on an isolated cattle station. The fossil site covers over 10,000 hectares and is now included in the Lawn Hill national Park. It has been a protected site since 1983 and was declared a World Heritage site of international significance in 1994. But why? Sir David Attenborough explains:
Riversleigh is the worlds’ richest mammal fossil site dating from 15-25 million years ago. The massive number of fossils discovered here are generally imbedded in hard limestone which was formed when freshwater pools solidified. This happened at time when this part of Australia was a rich rainforest area, rather than the semi-arid grassland that it is now. The fossils cover a period of 20 million years helping scientists understand how Australia, its climate and animal species changed. Most of what is known about Australia’s mammals over 20 million years was learnt from bone discoveries at Riversleigh, and the most significant ones were found in just one hour!
It is the mammals that we find the most fascinating today with large mega-fauna from prehistoric eras the most amazing. But there have also been finds of birds, frogs, fish, turtles and reptiles. The finds have included: the ancestors of Tasmanian Tigers (thylacines); large meat eating kangaroos; huge crocodiles; giant flightless birds; the ancestors of our platypus (monotreme); ancient koalas and wombats; diprotodon; giant marsupial moles and bandicoots; around 40 species of bats; and marsupial “lions”. The site has yielded a complete skull and teeth of a giant platypus and the various thylacines have added to our previous knowledge of just one- the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger.
Scientists have dug over 250 fossil rich sites at Riversleigh finding hundreds of new species. Who has heard of: dasyurids, cuscuses, ilariids and wynyardiids? I have no idea what they were. Other strange discoveries have been: 'Thingodonta' (Yalkaparidon) - an odd marsupial with skull and teeth like no other living marsupial; Fangaroo- a small grass eating kangaroo species with giant teeth; the Giant Rat-kangaroo, (Ekaltadeta) that ate meat( perhaps the Fangaroo); and the Emuary, (Emuarius) which was half emu and half cassowary in features. The Fossil Centre in Mt Isa has some reconstructions of some of these fossil animals of prehistoric times.
Willy Ley (1906-1969) was a German-American science writer and space advocate who helped popularize rocketry and spaceflight both in Germany and in the United States. He was a rocket designer and co-founder of the world’s first rocket airfield in Berlin. In 1935, he fled Nazi Germany for Great Britain and then the United States.
Willy Ley also enjoyed writing about the mysteries of natural history and was one of the early chroniclers of cryptozoology. He wrote about Sea Serpents, Yeti and the possibilities of living dinosaurs. He also suggested that some legendary creatures (e.g. the Sirrush, the Unicorn and the Cyclops) might have been based on real species (or the misinterpretation of certain animals or their fossils or remains).
Many of his articles published in journals, newpapers and magazines were on cryptozoological topics. The German book “Drachen Riesen” (Dragon Giants) appears to be the German edition of Willy Ley’s “Dragons in Amber: Further Adventures of a Romantic Naturalist,” first published in the UK in 1951. It is an early example of Ley’s cryptozoological writings where he describes strange animals from yesterday and today and makes amazing connections between science and legend. He writes about extinct animals and animals from the distant past that are still living in hidden corners of the earth.
Prints: daniel-eskridge.artistwebsites.com/featured/glyptodon-dan...
Glyptodons were giant cousins of the armadillo that lived in South and Central America during the last ice age. There were about the size of a small car and ate the tougher grasses and plants that grew on river banks and lake shores. They went extinct about 10,000 years ago. I read somewhere that they were likely hunted by humans and that people may have used their shells for storm shelters.
The extinct mammalian fauna of Dakota and Nebraska :.
Philadelphia :Published for the Academy, by J.B. Lippincott,1869..
Pig-Footed Bandicoot or schweinsfuß-Nasenbeutler: as the unusual name suggests, this species is an nowadays extinct, strange marsupial. They once lived until 1901 in desert-like habitats in Australia. While searching for food the jumped like kangaroos on two legs, chased by enemies they changed to flight mode using four legs. Unfortunately they seemed not to be able to out run introduced foxes, which led to the extinction of this strange animal. Stuffed specimen photographed at the MNHN in Paris, 2008
Extinct monsters : a popular account of some of the larger forms of ancient animal life / by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson ... with illustrations by J. Smit and others.
London : Chapman & Hall, 1896.
GLIPTODONTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prehistoric Glyptodont .......................................
Glyptodon clavipes Owen, 1839
Superorden: Xenarthra ... Orden: Cingulata ... Familia: Glyptodontidae
Glyptodon clavipes constituye, junto con Glyptodon reticulatus y Glyptodon elongatus, una de las especies de Glyptodontinae lujanenses mejor caracterizadas.
Una serie de estudios efectuados sobre el aparato hiodeo, sugieren una dieta eminentemente pastadora.
Entre los Glyptodontidae, es el género que posee la mayor extensión latitudinal, que va desde el sur de la Argentina hasta Venezuela.
Su presencia en Centroamérica, especialmente en México, esdudosa y requiere alguna revisión.
Este taxón se habría desarrollado en ambientes abiertos de pastizales y estepas.
En un trabajo se evaluó la postura bípeda de Glyptodon clavipes con un modelo mecánico.
El modelo predice una inclinación del cuerpo de 7° con respecto al plano horizontal durante su postura bípeda, y muestra que en este taxón el cuerpo se disponía próximo al plano horizontal pivotando sobre la articulación de la rodilla.
El análisis de los tres puntos articulares de la extremidad posterior (cadera, rodilla y tibillo) y la disposición de los principales músculos que contrarrestan los momentos del centro de masa durante la postura bípeda, respaldan la predicción del modelo. Entre otros gliptodontes, Panochtus tuberculatus tiene similares características bípedas, Propaleohplophorus australis muestra un bipedalismo menos exigido, y en Lomaphorus ornatus la locomoción bípeda no es favorecida.
Su nombre significa “diente tallado”, en alusión a la compleja forma de sus dientes.
Este glypto habitó la región pampeana durante el pleistoceno tardío, pesaba alrededor de 1500 kg,
Sus osteodermos son poligonales o subcirculares, de espesor algo menor que en Glyptodon reticulatus; su figura central es ligeramente mas elevada que las perifericas, es de tamaño mayor, penta o hexagonal, con una depresión ligera en su superficie.
Las figuras periféricas, se presentan en número de 5 a 7 y en línea simple.
Los surcos son anchos pero menos profundos que los de otros glyptodontes
Los Gliptodontes fueron grandes animales extinguidos, mucho mayores que el más grande de los armadillos modernos, con los cuales compartían el mismo orden, pero distinta familia, pues ambas estirpes se separaron hace más de 40 millones de años.
Originalmente se desarrollaron durante el Mioceno de América del Sur, que continuó siendo su centro de mayor diversidad de especies.
Cuando el istmo de Panamá se formó, alrededor de tres millones de años atrás, varias especies se extendieron hacia el norte como parte del gran intercambio americano, al igual que los armadillos.
La característica principal de los gliptodontes era la armadura de su cuerpo que recuerda al de una tortuga gigante, compuesto de segmentos de huesos llamados osteodermos o escudos.
Cada especie de gliptodonte tenía su propio patrón de osteodermos y cada tipo de caparazón.
Pero a diferencia de la mayoría de las tortugas, no podían esconder sus cabezas, por lo que desarrolló un casco óseo en la parte superior de su cráneo.
Incluso la cola tenía un anillo de huesos para su protección.
Doedicurus incluso poseía una gran maza en el extremo de la cola que se la utilizaba para luchar con otros Doedicurus y defenderse de sus depredadores.
Los Gliptodontes también tenía el tamaño de su lado, muchos como el género tipo Glyptodon, eran del tamaño de un Volkswagen Beetle (escarabajo).
En el momento en que evolucionaron, el principal depredador en la isla-continente de América del Sur fue el forusrácido (Phorusrhacidae) , que era un ave no voladora gigante y carnívora. Los gliptodontes eran herbívoros.
Al igual que muchos otros xenartros, no tenían incisivos o caninos, pero tenían una serie de muelas capaces de moler la dura vegetación. También tenían muy profundas mandíbulas, con grandes proyecciones óseas hacia abajo que anclaban poderosos músculos masticatorios.
Su peso oscilaba entre 1000 y 2000 kilos. Las especies de mayor tamaño superaron los 3 metros de largo y 1,2 metros de altura.
Tenían todas las vértebras soldadas, al igual que la cintura pélvica, por lo que su movilidad era reducida.
Los huesos de las extremidades eran cortos pero anchos.
Vivían en manadas, en lugares abiertos (no cavaban madrigueras).
Estas especies de gliptodóntidos vivían en sudamérica desde hace algunos millones de años atrás, desapareciendo completamente, junto con una enorme cantidad de géneros y especies de otros grandes mamíferos, hace unos 8.500 años, es decir, inicios del Holoceno, con claras evidencias de haber sido consumidos por los aborígenes.
Básicamente, se han propuesto tres explicaciones acerca de esta gigantesca extinción.
° La primera es que el hombre fue un factor decisivo en la desaparición de esas especies, al producir una "sobrematanza" muy intensa durante un corto período.
° La segunda es que la actividad de estas antiguas sociedades desencadenó en el medio ambiente modificaciones de una magnitud tal que las especies en cuestión no habrían podido superarlas (incendios, extinción de especies presas y las consecuencias que esos faltantes generaban en la vegetación, etc.).
° La última es que el papel de la intervención humana fue en este sentido el de un simple "golpe de gracia" , dentro de un proceso natural de reducciones poblacionales.
En el aspecto físico los gliptodontes recordaban a los Ankylosauridae (anquilosaurianos), una familia de dinosaurios que vivieron entre156 y 65 millones de años atrás; como así también a la Meiolania, un género extinto de tortugas que sobrevivieron los últimos ejemplares hasta hace solo 2.000 años en Nueva Caledonia; ambos son ejemplos de evolución convergente, en donde linajes independientes concluyen en formas similares.
(3 de noviembre de 2009)
Museo de Ciencias Naturales de la ciudad de La Plata,
provincia de Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA.
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Much larger than the present-day giant armadillo, but extinct today. A diorama at the Bishop Museum of Science & Nature recreates a Floridian scene feat features animals that have since become extinct. Glyptodonts existed during the Miocene era of between 23 million and 5 million years ago. They became extinct around the end of the last Ice Age, coinciding with the arrival of the first human beings.
Original for sale, contact me for more info
Giclee's also available on my etsy shop
Watercolor, Acrylic, pen & ink, glitter gems & sequins on watercolor paper
10" x 12"
Made for my show "Perilous Holiday at Gum Nut Island", which was inspired by the history of the Dodo, lands before time, tropical storms, dangerous flora, various Palm species, underground hibernation, sea urchins, Alice in Wonderland, Art Deco and familial relationships of the Snake.
Extinct monsters and creatures of other days : a popular account of some of the larger forms of ancient animal life / by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson. With illustrations by J. Smit, Alice B. Woodward, J. Green, Charles Knight, and others.
London : Chapman & Hall, 1910.
Prints: daniel-eskridge.pixels.com/featured/lords-of-the-ice-age-...
A trio of woolly mammoths trudges over snow covered hills. Behind them, mountains with snow covered peaks rise above dark green forests of fir trees. Above, the dark moody sky threatens to add more snow to the ground. The leader of the mammoths walks towards you. The great animal of the Ice Age stares directly at you as if it dares you to challenge it for lordship over its Pleistocene kingdom.
"T-Rex in a Flooded Forest"
Prints: daniel-eskridge.artistwebsites.com/featured/t-rex-daniel-...
A tyrannosaurus rex slogs through a flooded forest. A bit of sunlight has broken through the tree canopy and shines down on the great prehistoric carnivore. His orange-brown scaly skin stands in stark contrast to the shadowy forest and dark waters at his feet. He opens his tooth filled mouth as if ready to seize something in his powerful jaws. Perhaps the flood waters have driven some prey out of hiding.
It's been about eight months since my last tyrannosaur themed work and I felt it was time for a new one. For this one, I wanted to give him a rather bright scaly skin that stood out well in a darker composition. A lot of paleoartists are giving the t-rex feathers these days, but I decided to stick with a scaly integument for a couple of reasons. For one, the only skin impression ever found for a TRex, "Wyrex" found in 2002, had no indication of feathers, and, even though they weren't much, they were on portions of the body where the species Yutrannus did have feathers indicating a clear difference from that cousin. So, I went with the current evidence - no feathers. Secondly, I think the featherless look just makes the t-rex just look more menacing, which for me, makes for more expressive art, and I generally favor artistic expression over technical accuracy.