I've been scouring the Internet since word arrived earlier this week that evidence of an ancient rainforest is present in Illinois. A study published in the May issue of the journal Geology reports that fossils from one of the planet's first rainforests are present in an Illinois coal mine. Most news reports failed to mention the exact location, but the Web site LiveScience.com reports that it is near Danville, Ill. This is not far from Forest Glen Preserve, one of the top hiking locales in central Illinois and the Camp Chicago area. In fact, you can see the entrance to a hundred-year-old "cat" mine at the preserve. A cat mine is a single-person mine dug by homesteaders in the area.
The rainforest existed 300 million years ago in the Upper Carboniferous, or Pennsylvanian, time period. Illinois then was part of the Laurussia land mass, and much closer to present-day Africa,
which was part of Godwanaland. It was around this time, give a million years or so, that the Appalachian Mountains were formed when Laurussia and Godwanaland collided. Some of the best-known fossils from this period are from Mazon Creek, in northeast Illinois. There were a lot of fish back then, but the only terrestrial animals of the Pennsylvanian included the branchiosaurus, or gill lizard, a tiny amphibian. Dinosaurs didn't appear until the Triassic period, 213 million years ago. Australopithecines, precursors to Homo sapiens sapiens, didn't appear until 4 million years ago.
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1 comment:
Given all the fascinating fact-jewels that you dig up here, I think you could re-name this blog "Bob's Cat Mine."
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