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Cave Near Chicago Full of Ancient Wonders
Corey Binns
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com Fri May 18, 6:30 PM ET
North America’s oldest conifer tree and some ancient scorpion parts are among the fossil treasures found in a newly discovered cave in Illinois.
The new discovery also unearthed fossils of plants that may be new to science and revealed evidence of prehistoric forest fires.
Scientists date the specimens to nearly 315 million years ago, according to initial findings presented last month at the regional meeting of the Geological Society of America in Lawrence, Kan.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Roy Plotnick, a paleontologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who discovered the cave with students on a field trip to a site two hours outside of Chicago. “The limestone that forms the cave is 450 million years old, but that’s not the interesting part of the cave. The preservation inside the cave is what’s fascinating.”
What is of interest to Plotnick and his colleagues are the well-preserved bits of plants and insects that have been cushioned in the cave and protected from the elements.
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Paleontologists are uncertain whether the paintings or the beer ad appeared first. Nevertheless, colors used in the beer sign ante-date the hues found in the paintings of the animals.
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The cave’s interior caused quite a stir. No one had expected that Dr. Strangelove would have had the time to follow through on his mine shaft survival method. The dead Morlock in front of Rod Taylor’s quaint time machine offers no clue as to the date of its arrival, but the ubiquitous Old Style remnants are further proof that its origins may have preceded hominids. Historians have identified the Lexington hotel and Al Capone’s hat, but no one has been able to place the photograph of the jacketless man.
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Images: (Time Machine) affordablehousinginstitute.com;(bottle) 40ouncebeer.com; (dark Lascaux cave painting) biblicalheritage.org;(geraldo) freepress.net;(gold frame) goldleafdesign.com;(Dr. Strangelove) lcsad.gov.hk;(morlock) movieprop.com;(Old Syle sign) oldstylebeer.com;(lexington hotel) prairieghosts.com; (hat) starcostumes.com;
(cave interior) Whitethornhouse.com;(light Lascaux) uncg.edu;Credit: (exterior cave) Roy Plotnick, University of Illinois at Chicago via livescience.com;
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