The World's Foundations; or, Geology for Beginners · Ch. XIX · Unit 3: Part II: Reptiles, chalk, mammals, ice and people
21. More about the age of mammals
Goal: Your child can explain what makes a mammal, and describe the animals and plants the book says lived in Europe and America in the New-Life Period.
You'll need
- The book, open to this chapter
- A globe, atlas or free online map
- Paper and colored pencils
- A notebook for a "rock journal" and a pencil
What's in the book
Chapter XIX describes the warm New-Life world: fig, cinnamon and palms near London, parrots and flamingoes in France, tapir-like beasts, a whale-like animal in American seas, early horses as small as a fox with toes, and forests in Greenland and Spitzbergen. Near its end the climate grows colder.
The lesson, step by step
A question to start
SayCoconuts near London? Forests of oak and walnut in Greenland? What would that tell you about the climate long ago?
Read the chapter together
Read Chapter XIX (pages 175 to 182). The book's definition of mammals:
They have a back-bone and skeleton ; so have fishes. They breathe air; so do reptiles. They are warm-blooded ; so are birds. They suckle their young ; and so do not any other living creatures.
How do we know?
Giberne explains that we know these plants grew there because their fossil leaves, fruits and seeds are found, some very finely kept:
A fossil butterfly was found in Croatia, the very pattern of the wing being exactly depicted on the stone.
A warm map
Find on a map: the Isle of Wight and London (figs, cinnamon, coconut), France (parrots and flamingoes), Greenland and Spitzbergen (oaks, beeches, walnuts). Ask: Which of these places would be too cold for such plants now?
The little horse
Read:
Also, there were horses, somewhat like those of modern days, only one kind was as small as a fox ;
The book says early horses had toes instead of one hoof. Draw a fox-sized horse with toes. Then: a modern horse stands on one big toe, its hoof. Can your child stand on tiptoe to feel what that is like?
Whales are mammals
The book explains that whales and porpoises are mammals, not fishes: warm-blooded, air-breathing, feeding their young on milk. It describes a huge ancient whale-like animal in American seas. Quiz: whale, shark, dolphin, seal: mammal or fish?
Tell it back
Ask your child to describe a walk through England or France in the middle of the New-Life Period, naming five plants or animals from the chapter.
What we know now
The book's Zeuglodon is now called Basilosaurus and is known to be an early whale. Early horses, like the one the book describes, were small, with several toes on each foot; over millions of years horses grew larger and came to stand on a single hoofed toe. The early part of this time was very warm, and fossil forests have even been found far north in the Arctic.
Afterwards
Notice it this week: check five animals you see (a dog, a bird, a fish, a spider, a person) against the book's four marks of a mammal.
Answers to the book's problems
A mammal has a backbone and skeleton, breathes air, is warm-blooded, and feeds its young on milk. Whales, dolphins and seals are mammals; sharks are fishes.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.