Re: Prehistoric Environments

[Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com>]

At 02:53 2007-02-27, Dinosaur George wrote:
> Are there any examples of modern locations that are a good representation 
> of prehistoric environments?  We are looking to shoot some plate shots and 
> hope to find some locations that would look similar to the Late Jurassic, 
> Late Cretaceous, Oligocene and Pleistocene of North America.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks.
>
> George

Parts of the Smokies National Park might be a reasonable analog for a 
Oligocene forest.

The Pleistocene would depend on what specific environment you want. Mammoth 
steppe is difficult. Parts of Eastern Tibet is the best modern analogue 
I've seen, but is not very accessible. Some areas in the Colorado high 
country are probably reasonably close too.

Interglacials are easiest, since the climate was close to what it is today. 
Remember though that there was a lot of megafauna around, so the vegetation 
was probably rather heavily grazed and browsed. The elephants in particular 
would certainly have stripped and overturned quite a lot of trees. There 
really is no good analogue of this outside parts of Africa today.

Tommy Tyrberg

Tommy Tyrberg