EAST TENNESSEE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

March 2025 Virtual Meeting

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Monday, March 10th, 2025
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

March Presentation

Thomas Jefferson's "Great-Claw" and the Birth of American Paleontology

By
 

Abstract
 

The giant ground sloth Megalonyx was the first genus of extinct vertebrate animal named from the United States. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, first published the name and a description of the animal in 1799, more than two decades before the nascent science of ancient life became known as "paleontology." The animal, whose remains are widespread across North America, is emblematic of the large-mammal fauna of the Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million years - 11,700 years ago). It appears in hundreds of scientific, historical, and popular publications, and appears in film and digital media. Similar to other fossils named in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Megalonyx has an interesting and complex history. It played a key role in the development of the science of paleontology and was central to early discussions of evolution and extinction. The search for and study of Megalonyx was decisive in the history of American science, in the expansion of the United States as exploration proceeded westward, and in the early contacts between people of European descent and North America's First Peoples. Extinction of Megalonyx occurred in the Early Holocene, after the arrival of humans in the Americas, and there is compelling evidence that humans hunted ground sloths. The intensity of human influence on terrestrial ecosystems that were home to ground sloths and other mammals was exacerbated by climate change related to glacial retreat in the Northern Hemisphere.

Megalonyx jeffersonii, holotype; after C. Wistar (1799; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society).

Loren Babcock is a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University and Director of the Orton Geological Museum. He has published extensively on paleontology, stratigraphy, and the history of evolutionary science. He is a Fellow of The Paleontological Society and the Geological Society of America.

 

Biography
 

Dr. Loren Babcock is the Director, Orton Geological Museum; and Professor, School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. After B.S. and M.S. degrees at SUNY-Fredonia and Kent State University (Geology/Biology/Paleontology), he earned his Ph.D. at University of Kansas in Geology/Paleontology, in 1990. He's been a professor at OSU since 1990 and added Director of the Museum in 2019..

 

 

Greetings, and welcome to the March 10, 2025 ETGS virtual meeting.
 

If you attend via Zoom as a courtesy please mute your cell phone or the microphone in your laptop/tablet to minimize background noise and feedback echoes. We will also make an effort to mute all participants - at least until the presentation is finished. Please use the chat feature to type any comments or questions you may have. We recommend that you send questions for the speaker to "everyone" so all participants can see the question. In the interest of time, we may hold the Q&A at the end of the presentation.

We will create a virtual attendance list. It is not always possible to tell who is participating on-line, especially for those joining by phone, so please email etgs@live.com to be listed on the attendance sheet. Let us know exactly how your name should appear on the list. We will add a note explaining the lack of signatures due to remote participation and have an ETGS officer sign as usual.

As always, we welcome and appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement.
 

 

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President
Tony McClain

Vice President
David Carlone

Secretary
J. Brad Stephenson

Treasurer
Seaira Stephenson

Webmaster/Social Media Coordinator
Bob Gelinas

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Page updated February 25, 2025