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February 28, 2016
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toric buildings have always for the community Icons of the Valley. VOL 21 NO 1 January 2016 Museum of the San Valley and discover SPOTLIGHT unique stories.
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Historic Icons of the Danville Hotel San Ramon Valley
Southern Pacific Railroad Depot Southern Pacific Railroad Depot A new exhibit featuring historic Danville a Grammar School buildings in the San Ramon Valley will be open from Saturday, January 23 through Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley in Danville. Each Saturday, beginning January 30, one building will be featured in a 10:30 talk. The exhibit is underwritten by Linda Gossett. Calling buildings “icons” may be a February 28,stretch, 2016 but in the case of five buildings in the Museum’s new Historic Icons of the Valley exhibit, the word fits. Featured in the exhibit
ns of the Valley
Postal Customer
a Grammar School
ECRWSS
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PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID DANVILLE, CA PERMIT NO. 70
toric buildings have Icons of the Valley. Museum of the San Valley and discover unique stories.
Celebrate amazing views and Mary Bowerman’s 108th birthday on the newly renovated Mary Bowerman Trail on Sun. Jan. 24th at 9:30 AM. Botanist Mary Bowerman co-founded Save Mount Diablo in 1971. The trail, also known as the “Diablo Necklace” is the single best short trail on the mountain, and circles the peak just below the summit, providing incredible 360 degree views. Half of the 0.7mile trail is paved and disabled accessible, the other half passes Devil’s Pulpit and is single track but mostly level. For more information call Save Mount Diablo at (925) 947-3535. Photo by Chris Benton.
The California Saber-Toothed Cat roamed the hills and valleys of Contra Costa as recently as 10,000 years ago By James Hale
Danville Hotel
The California Saber-Toothed Cat (Smilodon fatalis californicus) was an apex, keystone carnivore that lived locally throughout the East Bay during the Pleistocene epoch, from 2.5 million years ago until about 10,000 years ago, preying on large herbivores such as bison, mammoths, camels, and giant ground sloths. The middle to late Pleistocene was the age of the enormous beasts known as Southern Pacific Railroad Depot megafauna, after Rancholabrean the famous Rancho La Brea tar pits, which yielded one of the greatest concentrations of diverse fossils. Situated in downtown Los Angeles, its tar-impregnated stream deposits have yielded the remains of 42 mammalian and 133 avian species as well as many other vertebrates, insects, plants, and others. More than one thousand two hundred individuals of the great Sabertooth
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(Smilodon fatalis californicus), California’s state fossil, have been identified. Archaeologist E. Breck Parkman estimates that perhaps 450 Sabertooths inhabited the Bay Area. He further suggests that 227,000 bison, 35,000 horses, 7,000 camels, 1,450 mastodons, 725 Columbian mammoths, and 400 dire wolves shared the Bay Area’s diverse habitats with these giant cats. The genus Smilodon was named in 1842 , based on fossils from Brazil. Three species are recognized today: S.gracilis, S. fatalis and S. populator. Smilodon was built more robustly than any extant cat, with particularly well-developed forelimbs and exceptionally long upper canines adapted for precision killing. Unlike modern large
cats, Smilodon had a short tail. The front and back limbs were about the same length, with strong retractable claws. S. gracilis was the smallest at 120 to 220 pounds in weight. S. fatalis had a weight of 350 to 620 pounds and a height of 40 inches at the shoulder. S. populator is the largest known felid at 490 to 880 pounds, with one estimate suggesting up to 1,040 pounds and a height at the shoulder of 47 inches. The structure of the hyoid bones suggest that Smilodon communicated by roaring, like modern big cats. The coat pattern of Smilodon is unknown, with convincing arguments for plain, spotted and striped patterns. The genus name for Smilodon means “tooth shaped like double-edged
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Mind and Body Awareness: New Year, New You! pages 8 - 9
knife” in Ancient Greek. The species name fatalis means “fate” or “destiny”, however it probably was intended to See CAT page 5