"All About Strange Beasts of the Past" by Roy Chapman Andrews. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Roy Chapman Andrews. All About Strange Beasts of the Past
All About Strange Beasts of the Past
Table of Contents
1. Tragedy of the Tar Pits
2. Reading the Fossil Record
3. In the Age of Mammals
4. The Beast of Baluchistan
5. The Wandering Rhinoceros
6. A Cold-Storage Mammoth
7. The Fate of the Shovel-Jawed Mastodon
8. The Story of the Horse
9. Some Very Strange Beasts
The Ground Sloth and His Relatives
Glyptodont
Irish Elk
Titanothere
Moropus
Dinohyus
Other Strange Beasts
10. Beasts, Men and Caves
Index
Отрывок из книги
Roy Chapman Andrews
Published by Good Press, 2021
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From the bare branches of a tree, half a dozen great black vultures watched the tragedy being enacted below them. Huge birds they were, with naked red heads, enormous beaks, and ten-foot wings. These vultures were close relatives of the California condor that lives today. Like all vultures, they fed on dead flesh or helpless animals. They didn’t kill for themselves as eagles and hawks do but waited until an animal died or had been caught.
While the sloths were still struggling in the clinging asphalt, the vultures circled over the trapped animals. One plopped down upon the surface of the pool. Then another and another. With hoarse croaks they surrounded the exhausted beasts. In a moment their great beaks would tear out chunks of living flesh. But as each bird tried to move, the sticky tar gripped its feet. Like insects on a sheet of flypaper, their wings and feathers were caught and held. Soon the scavengers of the plains were only black balls of tar. Long before the sun dropped behind the mountains, all trace of birds and beasts had disappeared. The pools glistened like silver. The traps were baited for new victims.
