How did the environment at Snowmass
answering this question 1.How did the environment at Snowmass, Colorado change in response to the cycles of Ice Ages? How did the variety of animals change in response to this changing environment?
its from the movie "Ice Age Trap" I'll copy and paste the narrator part which answers the question for #1
NARRATOR: Could this massive cache of bones, at Snowmass, shed light on the vanished world of the Ice Age? The question of what causes ice ages is hotly debated. The leading theory connects it to a wobble in the way the earth spins. That wobble changes the angle of sun hitting the earth, shifting it nearer to and father from the poles. Less direct sunlight on the poles means ice sheets grow, setting off a chain reaction. For North America, that meant that massive glaciers repeatedly ground their way southward, reaching as far as present day New York, and then retreated. When North America was cooler and the glaciers advanced, the ancient lake site at Snowmass was cooler, too. There was grass there, but fewer trees. When the continent warmed and glaciers retreated, Snowmass also warmed. Forests around the lake grew lush, drawing families of mastodon. Furry and chunkier than its mammoth cousins, the mastodon was built to fight. Averaging five tons, it was about the size of today's African elephant, but more robustly built. The giant Bison latifrons also flourished in the warmth. At two tons, this one was twice as big as today's bison, with up to eight-foot headgear. One top predator of these warm-weather animals was Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat. About six feet long and 600 pounds, Smilodon used its bulk to subdue prey, not its teeth. Only when the prey was down would it sink its enormous fangs into a victim's windpipe and jugular. When the world cooled and the glaciers advanced, another set of creatures came on the scene. Columbian mammoths were the largest of the Ice Age icons, and probably lived in matriarchal families. At 13 feet tall, with 12-foot tusks, they were larger than today's elephants. But these giant plant eaters faced plenty of plus-sized predators. Short-faced bear, one of the largest bears ever to walk the earth, might have targeted mammoth infants or weak adults. It stood an imposing 11 feet high when upright. Another animal that actually evolved in North America was Camelops. Analysis of the backbone of Camelops suggests it was a one-hump camel. Both mammoths and camels were also likely hunted by dire wolves, some of the largest and fiercest wild canines that ever lived. What became of all these Ice Age mega-beasts? Snowmass, with its collection of pristine fossils, presents an unprecedented opportunity to understand this lost mountain world of ice and animals, and not just animals.
Use your own words please do not copy and paste!!! I'll copy and paste my response here but my professor said i need to rewrite it cause it consist of word for word from the movie.. If you can rewrite my response better using your own words that would be great but if you like to start your own that would be even better but make sure you answer the question!!!
My response: From my understanding, when North America was cooler and the glaciers advanced, the ancient lake site at Snowmass was cooler too. When the continent warmed up and glaciers retreated, Snowmass also warmed up. During the warm climate, forest and the lake grew lush which drew families of mastodons and giant Bison Latifrons also flourished. One top predator that liked warm-weather was the Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat. When the climate cooled and the glaciers advanced, another set of creatures came on the scene such as the Cold-weather Mammoth. While the excavation team dug in the fall, they figured out that the lake was formed by a glacier over thousands of years. It consists of three layers, bottom layer that is made up of rocks and dirt where they found warm-weather creatures like a sloth and a number of mastodons bones, middle that made up of silt where they discovered a massive skull from the ancient Bison latifrons, and the top made up of peat and clay where they found the first cold-weather mammoth along with hints of several others.
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