West View

West View. . Sea level during the last glacial period was about 400 feet lower than it is today. Ice sheets and glaciers held more of the Earth’s water, and cooler oceans contracted, taking up less space. During the Rancholabrean Age, California’s coastline extended all the way to what are now the Farallon Islands! San Francisco Bay was an inland tule marsh full of wildlife. The estimated locations of the Farallon Ridge and Golden Gate Bridge are labeled above., Giant short-faced bears were the strongest, largest, and fastest of the North American bears. Their wide snouts appear short relative to their massive heads compared to bears familiar today., A species of pronghorn was discovered at this site. These herbivores traveled in herds, much like today’s pronghorns., California poppy, out state flower, bloomed across the South Bay landscape in the Pleistocene, as it does today., American mastodons were distantly related to mammoth and today’s elephants. They primarily lived in forests, browsing on trees and shrubs., Camelids once roamed western North America. The one found here is named Camelops/ It is not certain if Camelops had a hump lie modern camels, or lacked one, like its modern llama relatives., Ground sloths found in this area were much larger than the sloths alive today, six to ten feet long and weighing up to a thousand pounds. Flat rear feet, stout tail, and well-developed front claws allowed it to rear up on its back feet to feed on tree leaves., The scimitar cat Homotherium serum, was smaller then the saber-toothed cat. Smilodon fatalis, with shorter, serrated canine teeth. It was a fast athletic open plains predator, hunting the large terrestrial herbivores of the epoch.