Re: Devils tower fossils?

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/21/02 2:17:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, david.marjanovic@gmx.at writes:


<< When reading of claws, I'm led to guess at a (Pleistocene) giant sloth. A
bear scaled up to the size of such claws would indeed be impressive... I
have absolutely no idea of the geology of that area, or of where that region
is in the first place :-) >>


       Devil's Tower is a remarkable igneous structure in NE Wyoming just to the north and west of the Black Hills (see the URL below). It was made famous in the film,  "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". You might remember Richard Dreyfuss compulsively sculpting it using his mashed potatoes as a medium.
       It is also the subject of one of the most beautiful museum dioramas ever created IMHO. You can see it at the American Museum of Natural History. It's the Mule Deer group in the Hall of North American Mammals. The dioama's backround painting by Perry Wilson is a tour de force. In his painting, the geology is a plain as can be and I have no idea how he could have possibly painted those cirrus clouds. Very worth a look if you are ever in New York City. DV
       http://www.nps.gov/deto/geology.htm