Stories bring stories
John E. Peterson, Special to the Gazette
Thursday, September 3, 2009
When you tell a story, it is not unusual for the story to remind a reader of a story. If the story is about an experience, a reader may be reminded of a similar experience. Telling stories would continue to stimulate readers — and listeners, too — to think of stories they could tell, if I had my way.
In one of these recent columns, I told a story about men gathering mussels from the Neosho River just south of Dunlap. The mussels were sent to Japan, as the story went, where they were used to produce pearls. That story immediately caught the attention of Paul Johnston because of his discovering prehistoric bones via people gathering mussels to send to Japan.
Before telling you that story, I must tell you a bit about Paul Johnston. Paul was a professor in geology and earth science at Emporia State. He is now retired, but his academic heritage continues for various reasons. One is that the geology museum at ESU is named for him, it is the Johnston Geology Museum. Another is that the museum is full of things Paul collected.
Now to Paul’s story. Let me first clarify this. My story told of mussels being taken from a river. Paul speaks of clams being taken from the river. Are they the same? Yes. Different common names for the same types of shellfish.
Some 15-20 years ago, Jim Bunyard of Chautauqua County and a friend were collecting clams from the bottom of streams in their area and selling them to Japanese pearl-industry people. One day, they were collecting in the Fall River in Greenwood County. From the river bottom, Bunyard pulled up what he thought was a clam. After he splashed it around to wash the mud off, he saw that he was holding a large, eight-inch claw.
They were concerned, jumped into their boat, went out of the water and up on a high bluff above the water. The water was clear, so as they looked down, they could see a portion of an animal skeleton about the size of a cow under the water. They got back in the water and pulled up some more bones.
A few days later, one of the men’s children took the claw to school to show it and tell about it. The teacher in that classroom had been in Paul Johnston’s class the summer before. She recommended that Mr. Bunyard and his companion contact Paul so that the skeleton could be identified. They did, and Paul recognized the claw as part of an extinct ground sloth.
So what is a ground sloth? Paul tells us that when North America and South America were connected some 65-70 million years ago, sloths migrated up from South America. There were various of them then, ranging in size from that of cows to elephants. There are none in North America now, but a tree sloth still exists in South America. They became extinct in North America about 10,000 years ago.
Sloths were big. They moved slowly and are thought to have walked on the sides of their large hind feet. The feet had large claws, probably for digging and protection. They had primitive teeth on the sides of their jaws, which suggests that they mostly lived on leaves of trees and bushes.
Paul tells us that they became extinct about the same time that man came onto the North American continent. That suggests that man’s hunting may have contributed to their demise. But huge changes in climate also may have contributed to their demise.
Now back to Paul’s experience with the Fall River sloth bones. It took about a year of negotiating, but he finally got the bones in the museum. Then, he got the landowner’s permission to dig the rest of the bones. The Corp of Engineers cooperated and lowered the water level. Paul and students built a sandbag dam around the bone area and went digging in the mud.
They were able to collect a few more bones. Paul says they got very muddy doing it. They got about half the skeleton, since much had been washed away over the years. It is all on display in the museum now. Do go there and see it. You would, if I had my way.
The sloth was identified as Megalonix jeffersonii. It was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. That was because Jefferson had found some bones and claws in a cave on some of his property in Virginia. Paul told a good bit about that and Jefferson’s interest and findings in prehistoric creatures. Very interesting and all new to me.
There, then, you have a short story of the story Paul told me about how clam-hunting influenced a bit of his work. It is a marvelous example, I think, of how a story can bring other stories. That would happen to more of us and more often, if I had my way.
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