Burpee Museum Art of the Earth - Mammoth Steppe Diorama 1221

Enhance your visit to Burpee Museum with a 60 min art class on select days at the museum, 1 - 2pm.

COST:

Adult Non-Members 14+: $18, ($3 Plus $15 Admission)

Youth Non-Members 4 - 12: $16, ( $3 Plus $13 Admission)

Members: $2 (FREE admission)

Learn how artists and scientists can work together to create a visual representation of a time on Earth we have never seen before: Paleoart! Learn how to draw a T-rex or Allosaurus using modern models, skeletons, and research. Imagine a mammoth and learn how artists recreate amazing prehistoric worlds through sculpture, video, painting, and more! Classes are taught by Burpee Museum resident artists. Examine plants, skulls, and animals up close and learn techniques that bring nature to life in your art!

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Saturday December 21, 1 - 2 PM

Not to be confused with Steppe mammoth.Ukok Plateau, one of the last remnants of the mammoth steppe[1]

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. It stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, across Eurasia to North America, through Beringia (what is today Alaska) and Canada; from north-to-south, the steppe reached from the arctic islands southward to China.[2][3][4][5][6] The mammoth steppe was cold and dry, and relatively featureless, though topography and geography varied considerably throughout. Some areas featured rivers which, through erosion, naturally created gorges, gulleys, or small glens. The continual glacial recession and advancement over millennia contributed more to the formation of larger valleys and different geographical features. Overall, however, the steppe is known to be flat and expansive grassland.[7][6] The vegetation was dominated by palatable, high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs.[3][6][8]

The animal biomass was dominated by species such as reindeer, muskox, saiga antelope, steppe bison, horses, woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth.[7][9] These herbivores, in turn, were followed and preyed upon by various carnivores, such as brown bears, (the cave or steppe-lion), scimitar cats, wolverines and wolves, among others.[10] This ecosystem covered wide areas of the northern part of the globe, and thrived for approximately 100,000 years without major changes, but then diminished to small regions around 12,000 years ago.[7]

Although it was primarily a Eurasian and Beringian biome, an analog of the mammoth steppe existed on the southern edge of the Laurentide sheet in North America as well, and contained many of the same animals such as woolly mammoths, muskoxen, scimitar cats, and caribou.[11]

Modern humans began to inhabit the biome following their expansion out of Africa, reaching the Arctic Circle in Northeast Siberia by about 32,000 years ago.[12]

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Basic supplies included in registration fee. Students should feel free to bring personal supplies they like to use. Each class lasts about 1 hour with guided instruction; however, students are welcome to stay longer and continue their work. Because admission is included in class fee, students should feel free to remain and explore the museum after class!

Host or Publisher Burpee Museum of Natural History