Sabercat Historical Park Signs / Interpretive Panels
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Appendix 6.1a: East View View East Appendix 6.1a: Interpretive Signs 1a Interpretive vulture Future location of Mission Peak Fremont cottonwood Diablo Range Western California bay laurel sycamore arroyo willow Western redbud cattail creeping wildrye tule ground sloth Western toad Painting by Don Ramie, 2016 Western pond turtle The Columbian mammoth was the About half of the animals living in the land mammals of the Irvingtonian Saber-toothed cats largest land mammal to live in North America during Irvingtonian landscape are present today, Many of the large of the genus Smilodon are the Irvingtonian Age, standing around 13 feet tall and including the Western pond turtle, mallard duck, continued into the late Pleistocene, but went extinct by The Western horse distant relatives of today’s was a large, stout grassland weighing about ten tons. A tusk found in this area and many others. wild and domestic cats. 6,000 years ago, due to climate change and human predation. grazer. It was the largest of was 13 feet long! These mammoths ranged from These massive carnivores Columbian mammoth the prehistoric horses that what is now the central United States all the way to Some species, like the raccoon, and red fox, surive to this had front canines as long as fossilized skeleton originated in North America, South America. seven inches, and preyed on day. Though the environment was wetter, landscape features and was similar in size to large herbivores. Smilodon a zebra. These horses lived and plant communities would be very familiar, resembling the Skull of Smilodon fatalis from fatalis is California’s state in herds, as wild and feral the La Brea Tar Pits fossil. vegetation you see along Sabercat Creek. horses do today. Przewalski’s horse, the last true wild horse, is related East View to the Pleistocene epoch’s horses Appendix 6.1b: West View Appendix West 6.1b: Interpretive Sign 1b Interpretive mallard ducks Farallon Ridge Pacific Ocean black oak future location of the valley oak Golden Gate Bridge coast live oak toyon black ancestral California lilac sage coyote coffeeberry California ground meadow vole squirrel Painting by Don Ramie, 2016 reconstruction of a short-faced bear The giant short-faced bears A new spieces of pronghorn California poppy, our state American mastodons, similar during the last glacial period was Camels once roamed Ground sloths found in this area The scimitar cat, Homotherium were the strongest, largest, and fastest was discovered at this site. These flower, bloomed across the South in build to Asian elephants, were distantly Sea level western North America. The were much larger than the sloths alive serum, is a smaller saber-toothed cat than of North American bears. Their wide herbivores traveled in herds, much like Bay landscape in the Pleistocene, as related to mammoths and today’s about 400 feet lower than it is today. Ice sheets and one found here is named today, six to ten feet long and weighing Smilodon fatalis, with shorter, serrated snouts appear short relative to their today’s pronghorns. it does today. elephants. They primarily lived in forests, glaciers held more of the Earth’s water, and cooler Camelops. It is not certain up to a thousand pounds. Flat rear canine teeth. It was a fast, athletic open massive heads compared to bears browsing on trees and shrubs. if Camelops had a hump like feet, stout tail, and well-developed plains predator, hunting the large terrestrial familiar today. oceans contracted, taking up less space. As a result, modern camels, or lacked one, front claws allowed it to rear up on its herbivores of the epoch. California’s coastline extended all the way to what like its modern llama relatives. back feet to feed on tree leaves. are now the Farallon Islands! San Francisco Bay was an inland tule marsh full of wildlife. reconstruction of a scimitar cat skull of a juvenile Ground sloth West View mastadon skeleton cast Interpretive Sign 2 Interpretive Age Land Mammals of the Irvingtonian Appendix 6.2: Western horse Land Mammals of the (Eqqus occidentalis) Irvingtonian Age Specimen from the La Brea Tar Pits Geologic Timescale Thousands of fossils, mostly Period Quaternary dating from 1,800,000 to 240,000 years Epoch Pleistocene (Ice Age) Holocene ground sloth ago, were excavated in what is now (Megalonyx spp.) Sabercat Historical Park and nearby Geologic Age Gelasian Calabrian Ionian Tarantian locations. Because of this remarkable North American short-faced Land Mammal Age Blancan Irvingtonian Rancholabrean discovery, that time period is described bear 2 1 (Arctodus simus) as the “Irvingtonian North American Land Time (Millions of Years Ago) Mammal Age,” after Fremont’s Irvington From The Mammoth Site District. Very few complete skeletons were found. The skeletons shown to the right of Hot Springs, SD, Inc. are from other North American sites, but illustrate species that were found here. These familiar faces are Irvingtonian mammals, too! Many animals survive nearly unchanged from their Ice Age ancestors, including ground squirrells, raccoons, opossums, and coyotes. Though it sounds like the distant past, on the geologic timescale the Irvingtonian Era is recent history--the dinosaurs had been extinct for 63 million years, and the continents were arranged the same as they are today. Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus colmubi) Specimen from the La Brea Tar Pits California ground squirrell raccoon opossum coyote Interpretive Sign 3 Interpretive of Fossils In Search Appendix 6.3: In Search of Fossils In 1936, a young paleontologist from the University of California, Berkeley, Ruben A. Stirton, began in 1868 on the Hayward After a large earthquake excavations in the Irvington gravel pits after a fossilized horse Fault, Dr. Lorenzo Gordon Yates, a dentist, discovered fossils on jaw was found there. He and his colleagues realized that the what is now Osgood Road in the Irvington District. Many were site probably contained early Pleistocene fossils, and found an identified as extinct Pleistocene horses, camelids, and mammoths. In antelope new to science. Later in his career, Stirton mentored 1871, he excavated a tusk and jaw of a mastadon that was the most Donald E. Savage. Savage went on to define the Irvingtonian Dr. Lorenzo complete jaw discovered in California at the time. Dr. Ruben Gordon Yates A. Stirton North American Land Mammal Age in 1951. The “Boy Paleontologists” excavating fossils at Bell Quarry, led by Wesley Gordon (center). The “Boy Paleontologists” excavating fossils at Bell Quarry. The “Boy Paleontologists,” a group of boys from Hayward, contribution of the Boy Paleontologists marked the beginning of an ongoing excavated fossils in the Bell Quarry from1943 to1959. Led by Wesley Gordon, relationship between the local community and researchers that continues to this the boys unearthed about 150,000 fossils from 58 different species. The day, and helped preserve Sabercat Canyon as a park. Interpretive Sign 4 Interpretive Under the Canopy Appendix 6.4: Under the Canopy Amphibians, reptiles and fishes, Migratory birds depend including tree frogs, rely on shade and habitat on the broad canopies of coast created by oaks, buckeyes, willows, and other live oaks for shelter, including the riparian trees. Tree frogs sometimes eat insects and versatile yellow-rumped warbler. spiders as large as they are. The toe pads of these These birds spend winter in remarkable animals allow them to climb vertical streamside woodlands and other surfaces in order to ambush their prey. somewhat open areas such as this all the way to Central America. Grey foxes and other mammals rely on urban forests and grasslands for hunting and raising their young. These omniverous animals are active at dawn, dusk and at night, and they are the only fox that can climb trees! This coast live oak stands 60 feet tall and stretches 90 feet wide. Because of its age, size and beauty, the City of Fremont designated it as a Landmark Tree in 2012, joining other exceptional trees throughout the City. Interpretive Sign 5 Interpretive Watershed Creek Laguna Appendix 6.5: Morrison ree Laguna Creek Watershed Morrison Cree ae Eliabeth Mission C ree unmodified channel culverted channel engineered channel Cree argas Mission ree 680 Sabercat Creek is one of several streams within the 25-square-mile Laguna Creek watershed that drain the foothills of the Diablo Range. As these creeks flow across flatter, lower ground in urban Fremont, they travel from Mission abercat You Are Here natural, open channels to underground culverts and concrete lined engineered ree ree channels. Finally, they flow to Mud Slough on the way to San Francisco Bay. 680 anada del Aliso ree aliente Agua Cree Agua aliente LEGEND unmodified channel culverted channel To Mud ranciscolough and ay Sabercat Creek showing significant bank erosion and undercutting, reducing Sabercat Creek, immediately after channel stabilization and replanting, an engineered open channel habitat value. providing better habitat and reduced hazards. New plantings grow over time. direction of flow Laguna Creek watershed boundary City of Fremont boundary Urbanization and other landscape changes have taken their toll on the open space health of Sabercat Creek, causing erosion and bank failure that is bad for the water bodies creek and wildlife. Ongoing restoration continues to improve channel stability, N water quality and habitat. 0.5 miles Interpretive Sign 6 Interpretive Plants of Sabercat Appendix 6.6: blue elderberry Sambucus nigra Blue elderberry is a large shrub or Plants of Sabercat small tree with arching branches, and abundant clusters of white flowers followed by blue berries. The berries poison oak are edible once cooked, and can be Toxicodendron diversilobium made into jam or wine. Elderberries are an important source of nectar Poison oak has green or red glossy, lobed leaves in groups of and food for pollinators and wildlife.