A layer of ice a mile thick covering the northeastern half of the continent. Glaciers that push along boulders the size of skyscrapers. A huge lake in the West covering more than 19,000 square miles. And along the shores of the lake, strange and wonderful beasts: wooly mammoths; mastodons; beavers the size of bears; bears the size of elephants; herds of horses and camels; pinheaded sloths, bison and armadillos all built in on a massive scale; saber tooth tigers and other giant cats.
And onto this stage steps man.It sounds like something out of a futuristic science fiction novel. But instead it is a setting out of our past.
Utah's Ice Age - stretching from about 1.8 million years ago to 10,000 years ago and known to geologists and natural scientists as the Pleistocene Epoch - was a period unlike any other, says Frank DeCourten, assistant director and adjunct professor of geology at the Utah Museum of Natural History.
Throughout geological history, no comparable period was as important in shaping the overall character of our modern world, he says. And yet, myths and misconceptions linger in the minds of many people.
That may change. The museum is planning a year-long celebration around the theme: Utah's Ice Age - A Mammoth Event.
This theme was selected for 1990 for a number of reasons, says DeCourten. For one thing, there is the Huntington Mammoth specimen that was discovered in August of 1988. It is one of the best Colombian Mammoths ever found, he says. The bones were uncovered at the Huntington Reservoir, and the Forest Service has decided that they should be cast and replicated for museums. "Our museum was selected to perform this work. The bones will be arriving around the first part of February."
The Ice Age theme also is an opportunity to focus on the three main disciplines the museum deals with: geology and paleontology, plant and animal life, and human history.
And then there are the misconceptions people have about the Ice Age. For example, says DeCourten, many people think that the mammoths were here the same time as the dinosaurs. Actually, they were separated by some 60 million years.
You also hear that Lake Bonneville was created as glaciers melted and the Ice Age thawed, but that's not true, either. Glaciers were the high-level expression of the Ice Age; Lake Bonneville was the low-altitude response to colder temperatures.
And, says DeCourten, people are unsure about the human presence. "We have this image of the cave man. But the first people to come into North America were nomadic and lived out in the open - not in caves."
The museum is planning three main activities for its Ice Age year. The first is a lecture series that will focus on various aspects of the Ice Age in Utah. (See lecture schedule.)
On Saturday, Feb. 17, the Ice Age Discovery Room will open. This will be similar to the Dinosaur Discovery Room set up in connection with 1988's Year of the Dinosaur and will feature hands-on exhibits, information about glaciers and Lake Bonneville, maps showing migration patterns of the mammals. There will be a working lab, where museum visitors can see actual work on construction of a giant ground sloth skeleton. And there will be an excavation area where youngsters can scrape away materials to discover bones and other artifacts. The Discovery Room will be open through the end of the year.
The third special event will be an exhibit of robotic re-creations of Ice Age creatures, including a mammoth, a giant ground sloth, saber tooth cats and a Volkswagen-sized armadillo. They will be set in an Ice Age world and will growl, breathe and move like the Dinamation dinosaurs of the past. This exhibit will run from Friday, May 25, to Sunday, Sept. 23.
In the overall scheme of things, 10,000 years ago - the last time we had Ice Age conditions in Utah - is not so very long ago, says DeCourten. Scientists think the colder conditions, and the lack of them now, are linked to changes in the Earth's orbit. The Pleistocene Epoch was not the only Ice Age our planet has seen. In the endless cycles of planetary history, there have been others - and will be others yet again.
Still, they are not sure we can blame all the changes on cycles of nature. What exactly was - and is - man's role?
Man came on the scene from Asia, crossing the ice bridge that connected that continent with North America. While the timing is still not well established and we are not exactly sure what the environment was when man got here, it seems that human history did grow up here in the shadows of the Ice Age. (And also seemed to be oblivious of it. It is interesting that ice stories don't appear in the mythology of any culture - contrary to flood stories that appear in one version or another among many of the world's peoples).
Many of the things that happened during this period are still with us - you can see them in the terraces around our valleys, in the shapes of our mountains, in many of the plants that still flourish here.
But none of the species of giant mammals that prowled the shores of Lake Bonneville and other areas during the Pleistocene Epoch are still around.
"We tend to think that if animals are extinct, they deserved it because they could not adapt to changing conditions. But these animals were well adapted to their environment," says DeCourten. Then along came man. There is no question that humans existed at the same time as the giant mammoths and mastodons. Projectile points of definite human origin have been found among the skeletons of the mammals.
Were humans responsible for killing them off? Were humans only the first of many other problems that began to plague the species as conditions changed?
If we can answer those questions, we may find messages for our own times, says DeCourten. "If we can understand what controls global change, if we can understand our own role, we may be able to correct critical interference before it is too late."
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(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Museum schedules Ice Age lectures
The winter lecture series at the Utah Museum of Natural History will focus on "Utah 10,000 B.C." Here's the schedule of lecturers and their topics:
Jan. 15: The Great Ice Age, by Frank DeCourten, assistant director and adjunct professor of geology, Utah Museum of Natural History. DeCourten will discuss definitions, causes and effects of the Ice Age and give an overview of the Pleistocene Epoch.
Jan. 22: Utah's Ice Age - A Glacial Landscape, by Don Currey, chairman of geography, U. of U. This lecture will explore Utah's ancient climate and look at flora and fauna along the shores of Lake Bonneville.
Jan. 29: Pleistocene Megafauna - A View From the Colorado Plateau, by Larry Agenbroad, director of the Quaternary Studies Program, Northern Arizona University. Agenbroad will tell the story of the amazing giants of the era as derived from sites containing ancient skeletal remains.
Feb. 5: Early Human Occupations of the Great Basin, by Don Grayson, professor, Burke Museum and department of anthropology, University of Washington. Human history enters the scene. Grayson will investigate the lifestyle of our earliest inhabitants.
Feb. 12: The Last 40,000 Years on the Planet of Doom, by Paul Martin, professor of geoscience, University of Arizona. What or who ruined the Ice Age Eden? Can we see parallels with current ecological trends? This lecture will look at extinctions of the giant mammals and present messages for our times.
Lectures will start at 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the Fine Arts Auditorium at the University of Utah. Cost is $3 per lecture or $13 for the series ($11 for museum members). Teachers may receive one hour credit for $15. For more information call 581-4887 or 581-6927.