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Thanks to a post on John Howell’s blog today, I came across this information on the brontothere, which I found interesting. It was a roundabout discovery, which is usually how it is for me.

Though an American paleontologist, Othniel Charles Marsh, coined the name Brontotherium, or thunder beast, the name originates in Lakota oral history. It’s what the Lakota called them because of the beast’s association with violent thunderstorms in their legends.

Brontotheres were plentiful in the Badlands National Park area during the Eocene Epoch, when the earth’s temperature was higher than it is today. Due to the abundant vegetation the creature thrived on at that time, they developed from a dog-sized creature until they stood about 8 feet tall. When the Eocene Epoch ended and the climate cooled, the vegetation the creature thrived on changed, and they died off.

Here’s a picture of the beast from Wikipedia:

By Nobu Tamura (http://spinops.blogspot.com) – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19459933

I hope you found this interesting, and maybe you’d like to see Mr. Howell’s post and try to figure out how I came across this. John Howell is a talented, accomplished author whose work I have truly enjoyed.

Mr. Howell’s post:

TUESDAY – ANYTHING POSSIBLE – FINGER POINT PROMPT