Balboa Park in central San Diego is a scenic locale with a number of attractions, including the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Since I'm in town with the Missus for the weekend, we decided to see the lions and tigers and bears, with maybe a side trip to the reptile house. It's definitely worth a visit, but since zoos typically focus on living animals, I wasn't expecting it to be a stop for the Paleo-tourist. That was before I entered the Elephant Odyssey. This section of the zoo introduces the visitor to the animals past and present. In fact, it is the only zoo exhibit I've seen that is based largely on regional fossils.
Entering the exhibit, you first encounter a re-creation of the La Brea Tar Pits, with the simulated remains of the hapless megafuana who met their end there. It's intended as an introduction to the animals that lived here 12,000 years ago, in the Pleistocene Epoch. Proceeding onward, you find a display of Pleistocene fossils and life-size reproductions of a family of Columbian Mammoths, Harlan's Ground Sloth and the American Lion. The exhibit notes that California has the world's largest concentration of Pleistocene fossils and many of these extinct animals have living counterparts.
Nearby, you will also see live examples of the modern versions: lions and elephants from Africa. Walking on farther, you will see living tapirs, llamas and capybara (the world's largest rodent), along with descriptions of their Pleistocene counterparts. In fact, the continuing theme is the comparison of the the living animals with the extinct ones. The similarities are very strong, since 12,000 years is not such a long time on the evolutionary time scale. But in terms of human lifetimes, it is unimaginably long ago and the themes of extinction and conservation are inescapably part of the picture. I would recommend a visit to the San Diego Zoo to anybody, but the paleo-tourist should not miss the Elephant Odyssey exhibit.
That sounds pretty interesting and exciting to see the similarities and the fossils between the living animals. I never known there is the largest rodent Capybara there. I think this Zoo will live up to my expactations if I go there. This is not only a very impressive venue crammed with a rich variety of animals, but it urge children to learn more about these species.
Posted by: Mary Elison | 02/21/2012 at 07:12 AM