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Prehistorians Puzzle Over
Not many thousands
of
years
ago,
a series
of
bizarre catastrophes turned our earth into an
animal disaster area. lt was a massacre
of
world–
wide proportions. Today paleontologists stare at
the fossil record. They ask themselves, uBut why
-and HOW?u
by
Paul W. Kroll
L-IE PLACE: Alaska.
THE SUBJECT : A mysterious series of cvents tbat wiped out
mammal life in Alaska a few thousand ycars ago.
THE REPORTER: Frank
C.
Hibbc:n, wcll-known professor of
archac.:ology at the University of New McxiCo who visited Alaska
in 1941. He surveyed thc tragic dTects visible in thc fossil
r<."'Cord. Later, Dr. H íbben pieccd together the facts in his book,
The Los/ Amerit:ans.
Here is a part of the baffiing story as he told it.
Animal Disaster Area
"In many places the Alaskan muck
blanket is packcd with animal bones and
debris in trainload lots.
"Within this mass,
frozen solid, lie the