Sierra Club to Present County Museum Curator of Paleontology

On Tuesday, March 3, the San Gorgonio Chapter of the Sierra Club will have their monthly meeting at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands at 7:30 p.m. Eric Scott, Curator of Paleontology at the San Bernardino County Museum, will present his illustrated program, “Evolving Icons: Ice Age Horses of the American West.” The meeting is free and open to the public. Horses are icons of the American West. Whether it is prospectors, cowboys, natives, or settlers in their covered wagons, one cannot help but imagine horses alongside them all. But horses have a connection with the West that goes far deeper than just human history, reaching back to the Ice Ages and beyond. Native to North America, horses have been key players in ancient ecosystems for over 50 million years and were mainstays of large mammal communities throughout the Ice Ages. Because of this success, Pleistocene horse fossils are extremely abundant throughout the American West. Scott’s research focuses on these remains. His studies have taken him to tar pits, frozen caves and blistering southwestern deserts. His talk will showcase some of his recent work at a variety of these sites, notably the Tule Springs site in southern Nevada and Natural Trap Cave in northern Wyoming. He will also discuss his research in museum collections throughout the U.S. Scott has worked at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands since 1991. He is also an adjunct professor in biology at California State University, San Bernardino. He studies the evolution and extinction of Ice Age large mammals in western North America, with a strong emphasis on extinct horses and bison. All are welcome to attend the meeting. Parking and admission are free but donations are accepted for room rental. The San Bernardino County Museum is located at 2024 Orange Tree Lane in Redlands.