Permian Period Part 2

 Mammals and reptiles could cope with the desert conditions better than amphibians, and so rose to dominate the Permian. Such dry conditions favored plants with seeds enclosed in a protective cover, rather than plants like ferns, that disperse spores. Modern trees like conifers, ginkgos and cycads appeared in the Permian.

On land, life included diverse plants and fungi. At first, a lot of the Carboniferous flora still flourished. But around the middle of the period, a massive desert covered the interior of Pangaea, and there are indications that the desert was devoid of vegetation. Even in areas where it wasn't such a stark desert, more advanced seed ferns and early conifers moved in. A number of types of plants and animals died out or became marginal elements. By the end of the Permian, swamps reminiscent of the Carboniferous survived only on a series of equatorial islands east of Pangaea that would later become South China.

The Permian saw the diversification of many important conifer groups, including ancestors of many present-day families. Rich forests were present in many area, with a diverse mix of plants. Southern Pangaea saw extensive seed fern forest, and oxygen levels were probably high there. The ginkgos and cycads also appeared.

Insects were very prevalent during the Permian, especially considering that 90% of the insects at the start of this period were cockroach-like insects. Primitive forms of dragonflies were the dominant aerial predators. Several insect groups appeared or flourished during this time, including beetles, true bugs and others.

Larger 'more advanced' types of animal life included reptiles and amphibians. A number of the reptiles seemed to be what I call the 'sail-backed' lizards, where they have bone ridges protruding from their spine and covered in skin. Some of these were herbivore and some were carnivore. I didn't find any indication of how large they might have gotten.

At some point, amphibians declined, and at least one family of the 'sail-backed' lizards was replaced with more advanced animals, including mammals and mammal-like animals. Towards the very end of the period, the first archosauriforms appeared. These were reptiles that possibly rose from the crocodile family and would go on in the next period to produce dinosaurs and pterosaurs. There were no flying vertebrates, although there was a family of gliding reptiles by the end of the period.

Also appearing late in the Permian were the first synodonts, which would evolve into mammals during the next period. Permian synapsids (the group that would later include mammals) thrived and included some large members, such as Dimetrodon. Their special adaptations enabled them to flourish in the drier climate, and they grew to dominate the vertebrates.

In the Permian sea, life was everywhere. You might have found mollusks, starfish, sea dollars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers if you went swimming, or animals very much like these modern versions. But as stated earlier, most of the marine life went extinct during the last days of this period. Nothing was said about the sharks or fish that were so prevalent in the previous period.

Could we live here? Plenty of plants are growing, at least, where it wasn't a desert, so maybe we could grow crops. Could we domesticate some of the herbivore sail-backed lizards? Would we want to? They're lizards, so they wouldn't give any milk. I have no idea how big their eggs might be, so that might be a reason to domesticate them. Okay, we'll leave some of us here to colonize the Permian, and the rest of us will go on to see what comes next.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emeishan_Traps

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimmeria_(continent)

Velociraptors

Velociraptors lived about 75 to 71 million years ago. There are 2 known species, both from Mongolia. The second species was only discovered in 2008.

They were depicted in the Jurassic Park movie as swift bipedal reptiles with a long tail and an enlarged sickle-shaped claw on each hindfoot, 6 1/2 feet tall and weighing about 180 pounds. Not so, say the scientists. They were bipedal reptiles, they were fast, and they had the fearsome claw. But they also had feathers, and were actually the size of a turkey. The raptors depicted in the movie series were based on a related genus, because the script said they had to look suitably fierce.

Instead of being 6.5 feet tall, velociraptors were as much as 6.75 feet long, snout to tail tip. Scientific artistic renditions show a very long, feathered tail. They were about 1 ft 7 inches high at the hip and weighs about 33 lbs. Although bipedal, their body and tail were roughly parallel to the ground. Their forefeet were also feathered, but were too short to serve as wings.

Their skulls grew up to 10 in long. The jaws were lined with 26-28 widely-spaced, serrated teeth on each side, more strongly serrated on the back edge than the front.

Their hands were large, with 3 curved claws. However, the structure of the wrist bones forced the hands to be held with palms facing inwards and not downwards.

On their feet, the first toe was a small dewclaw, and the 2nd held the ferocious claw spoken about earlier, which could get 2.5 inches long along its outer edge. Only their 3rd and 4th toes were used in walking or running. Although some beliere their 2nd toe claw was used for disemboweling prey, tests have proven it was most likely used for stabbing and holding, to keep their prey from escaping.

If we’re going to compare fiction to fact, then we must consider the depiction in the Jurassic Park movies of velociraptors hunting in packs. Although there are some indications of other species in the family hunting in packs, there is little to no indication in the fossils of velociraptors doing it.

Most of the known velociraptor fossils have been found in current desserts, under conditions that indicate the locale at the time of their death was also arid and covered in sand dunes, or possibly a little less arid.

Now, my first thought about incorporating velociraptors in a story involves a comedy-ish story where a town in the desert is suddenly overrun by predatory turkeys, which turn out to be—according to the local Wise Guy—descendants from velociraptors, long thought extinct these millions of years. Of course, once the raptors ate up all the local cats, dogs, and chickens, they would necessarily start picking on larger prey... large dogs, wolves, goats... children? Alas, I don’t do horror, which is where this thought is quickly leading me. Anybody out there have any other ideas?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor

https://www.livescience.com/23922-velociraptor-facts.html

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/velociraptor-facts.html

Tepary Beans

When I was researching for my blog post on the Tohono O'odham people, one of the foods they relied on was the ‘white tepary bean’. With my New Year’s Resolutions in mind (#3. Eat more wisely), I thought I would research these beans to see how they compare to the more traditional beans I grew up eating. Not because I plan to add these to my diet (although I could... at least one of my sources will gladly sell me a pound or more, complete with cooking instructions), but because if I’m going to think of food between meals, I should probably make it healthy types of food and not left-over Christmas candy. Or any kind of candy.

The information on the O’odham people specified white tepary beans, but there are many varieties of tepary beans. One source even listed several wild varieties, which they will sell me a packet of 50 to grow in my own garden. Alas, Florida is not the same climate as the Sonora Desert, so I don’t think they would grow here very well. Especially with me being the unskilled gardener than I am.

Tepary beans - including the white varieties - are native to the Sonoran Desert. They were first domesticated in Northwest Mexico some 4,000 years ago. The ‘secrets’ of growing and using them were passed down from generation to generation, particularly among the O’odham people. Being a desert plant, they are tolerant of heat, drought and alkaline soil. In the last 30 years, tepary beans have spread to other arid regions worldwide.

Beans are already super foods, but tepary beans are even higher in protein (21 grams in 1/2 cup!) and fiber. Their fiber helps control cholesterol and diabetes. These small beans have a meaty, dense texture and are savory in taste. White versions are slightly sweet, while the browner versions have a more earthy taste. And even with all this fiber, tepary beans produce less gassiness than other beans like navy, pinto or kidney beans.

During the 1920’s, Tohono O’odham farmers grew 1.5 million pounds of tepary beans per year. However, during the 1930’s, increased mechanization and irrigation led to less tepary beans being grown, and by the 1950’s, teparay beans were extremely rare.

Native Seeds/SEARCH began to promote the use of tepary seeds in the 1970’s and 80’s, and today they conserve nearly 100 versions of domesticated and wild tepary beans, adapted to low and high desert environments.

Their website had pictures of different varieties, so I compared the ‘domesticated’ to the ‘wild’ types. The domesticated beans seemed very much like navy or pinto beans in shape, and each bean looked pretty much the same as all the others of that type. But the wild varieties were much more angular and looked more like pebbles, all the same color. I imagine the angular edges are from more seeds being crowded into one pod, and they squish each other trying to get as big as they can.

We can call Florida many things, but ‘desert’ is not one of them. Maybe I could try to grow them in pots in the house, but they like temperatures as high or higher than 100°F, and we have the air conditioning on long before the house gets that hot. I am NOT heat tolerant, and if the house ever got to temperatures teparies like, I would not just wilt, I would try to melt.

Guess I’ll just have to order a pound and see what they’re like.

https://www.ranchogordo.com/products/white-tepary

http://store.ramonafarms.com/White-Tepary-Beans-STOTOAH-BAVI/productinfo/BTEPWH1/

https://www.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans

https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/tohono-oodham-white-tepary-bean

The Insidious Devil’s Claw!

I think I came across mention of this plant when I was studying the Tohono O’odham Nation of the Sonora Desert. I finally got curious enough to investigate them, mainly because of the name.

Apparently, (if I read these 2 short articles correctly), there are a number of related plants around the world that are all called Devil’s Claw, Devil’s Horn, Ram’s Horn, Elephant Tusks or Unicorn plant. There is at least one variety that grows in South Africa, and two that grow in the Sonora Desert.

All of these names come from the seed pod, which starts out green, fleshy and shaped somewhat like a small banana. Somebody must have thought that looked like a unicorn horn, so that explains that name.

The rest of the names come from the ripe seed pod, which becomes woody and develops a split starting at one end, so that it seems to form a pair of claws, a pair of horns or a pair of tusks.

One variety that grows in Sonora is annual, so once it germinates, it must form seed pods that year, or die trying. However, for both Sonora varieties, the seeds may take several years to germinate, and the perennial version does not necessarily flower every year, so that particular plant would not produce seed pods that year. The perennial version does have a large taproot, so it is less dependent on a rainy season.

There is a 3rd variety of this plant in the Sonora, but it is ‘partially domesticated’. The Tohono O’odham use Devil’s Claw seed pods in their basket weaving, and they (meaning the women) developed a strain that had larger seed pods whose seeds did not take as long to germinate.

Basket weaving was/is not the only use for these seed pods. The seeds are edible and are a source of important dietary oils and proteins. The fleshy unripe pods are also edible and can even be pickled!

When there aren’t any humans around to plant the seeds, the plants do it anyway, by ‘catching hold’ of a passing animal’s fur (such as a cow) with its claw. However long it hangs on is that much distance from the mother plant, and it’s even possible the fallen seed pod might be broken open by a hoof.

I just can’t quite get over the idea of pickled baby bananas, although there’s nothing to say that these unripe seed pods taste anything like a banana, pickled or not. Of course, when my mother decided to try pickling watermelon rinds, I thought she was nuts, but I came to like that stuff, in a weird kind of way. Wish I had her recipe.

Does anybody have a recipe for pickled unicorn horns?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscidea_(plant)

https://www.desertusa.com/flowers/devil-claw.html

OrganPipe Cactus fruit

I have often wondered what kind of food chain there would be in a desert that would allow people to live there. Oh, yes, I’ve heard about certain rats, rabbits, coyotes, snakes, lizards... But the fact is that as you go down the food chain to smaller and smaller creatures, eventually you have to get to plant-life. On Earth, it seems a pretty likely bet, anyway.

I am often disappointed by authors and filmmakers who forget there needs to be some kind of food chain. In my latest viewing of “Dune” - I can’t remember which version of it I was watching - it occurred to me that the people on the planet were apparently colonists, or descendents of colonists. There was much talk about the great worms, with no talk of what they ate. One assumes that there was a mouse species on the planet, but they might have come with the colonists. One assumes there are mice, because the nickname the common people adopt for Paul was the name of a species of mice who fight back. And in one scene, I saw at least 1 beautiful butterfly. Nowhere did I ever see any kind of plantlife out in the wild. So... what did the butterflies, the fierce mice, the worms and the people eat? I don’t know. I don’t remember anything like that being mentioned in the book, either. Sigh.

By comparison, Earth deserts are veritable hotbeds of life. So let’s take a look at another desert food source that I’ve heard about.

The organ-pipe cactus grows in the Sonoran Desert and Baja California. It has a very short trunk, from which dozens of stems grow, producing what one might think of as a bush. Its root system only reaches about 10 cm (4 inches) into the ground, but are sufficient for sucking up monsoon water when it occurs. Otherwise, the plant is pretty water-tight, with a water-proof skin and plenty of thorns to keep from getting eaten. An individual cactus can live 150 years, but doesn’t produce fruit until age 35. Probably because a good growing year will see it add a whopping 2.5 inches a year to its height.

In May and June, the organ-pipe cactus develops white/creamy flowers that only open at night and usually close back up by mid-morning. That doesn’t leave much time for day-time pollinators to get to it, but bats do the job just fine during the night.

Just before the rains come in July and August, the fruit ripens and splits open to reveal bright red flesh surrounding lots of seeds. Or maybe the fruit was red and the inner flesh was purple; I’ve seen it described both ways.

I didn’t find a lot of recipes for preparing organ-pipe cactus fruit. Apparently, you simply mash the fruit flesh and seeds into a sweet paste, which could be eaten as it was. Or you could dry it out to make a spreadable jelly. Another way would be to separate the seeds and place them in storage. Later, you could grind the seeds into a flour to make seed cakes. So, you could have your seed cakes and fruit jelly both!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenocereus_thurberi

www.nps.gov/orpi/learn/nature/organ-pipe-cactus.htm

http://www.ethnoherbalist.com/southern-california-native-plants-medicinal/pitaya-fruit/