Courtesy of VINS
As previously printed, this mega-mammal stands in the meadow at VINS, though now it has a snowy surrounding, depicting an Ice Age-like environment.
Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. — QUECHEE — On Thursday, Feb. 4, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., go back in time, 13,000 years with geologist Meredith Kelly and artists Bob Shanahan and Wendy Klemperer. At the end of the Pleistocene epoch, when glaciers covered North America, Vermont was completely covered in layers of snow and ice. Huge mega-mammals roamed the continents. Glaciers receded over thousands of years, changing our landscape forever.
With their disappearance, almost a quarter of the species living at that time went extinct. In the VINS meadow at the Nature Center, where artists have brought them back to life, visitors can encounter a woolly mammoth, short-faced bear, western camel, dire wolf and American lion.
Join the science talk with Meredith Kelly, Ph.D., a Quaternary Geologist at Dartmouth College. Dr. Kelly will set the stage, describing the harsh, wintry world of the Ice Age mammals and what happened to change our environment. Her research interests and objectives center upon advancing the knowledge of the terrestrial record of past climate change on timescales that range from centuries to millions of years.
An artist walk will be guided by contributing artists, Bob Shanahan and Wendy Klemperer, along the lighted pathway through the meadow to examine the Ice Age mammals up close. Explore the types of adaptations these mammals used to survive the snow and ice-covered world thousands of years ago. Artists reveal processes in researching and building the life-sized sculptures.
Following the walk, warm up with some refreshments and cocoa. This event is free and open to the public. A donation is suggested.
Admission to the Nature Center is $13.50 adults; $12.50 age 65 and over; $11.50 ages 4 to 17; and free for members and age 3 and under. For more info, visit vinsweb.org.
