In honor of “National Day of the Horse,” join Curator of Paleontology Eric Scott at the San Bernardino County Museum on Saturday, December 13 at 2:00 p.m. to look at whether Ice Age horses on our shores may have met their demise due to objects from outer space … or from some more down-to-Earth phenomenon. Scott’s illustrated lecture will journey through deep time to look at evidence for ancient impacts, and their effects on life on Earth. Just in time for the holidays, and in the wake of humanity’s first landing on a comet, it’s a fascinating examination of what happens at the intersection where outer space meets the fossil record. This presentation is included with museum general admission.

 

Outer space isn’t empty. It is full of matter – dust, planets, stars and other debris. All through geologic time, life on Earth has been episodically impacted by the arrival of some of these extraterrestrial objects, particularly asteroids and comets, on our planet’s surface. Occasionally, these objects are of sufficient size to have catastrophic results. The best known of these events, around 66 million years ago, is thought to have caused the mass extinction of the non-flying dinosaurs.

 

Other extinctions in Earth’s past have also been blamed on extraterrestrial impacts, including recent studies suggesting that extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch – the “Ice Ages” – around 11,000 years ago may have had a celestial cause. This extinction event led to the demise of numerous animals in North America, including mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, sabre-toothed cats, and even horses. With scientists still debating whether the Ice Age extinction had an extraterrestrial cause, the time is ripe for examining the evidence.

 

The San Bernardino County Museum is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 9 am to 5pm. General admission is $10 (adult), $8 (military or senior), $7 (student), and $5 (child aged 5 to 12). Children under five and Museum Association members are admitted free. Parking is free. For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org. The museum is accessible to persons with disabilities.