Pleistocene Santa Cruz Museum Panels

Pleistocene grazer scene | Procreate 24”x36” | 2025

pleistocene browser scene | procreate | 24”x72” | 2024

Top image (2025):
In 2025, it was announced that additional ground sloth material had been found in Santa Cruz county, this time of paramylodon. I created a landscape scene as a companion to the first panel I illustrated, showing a more open environment where paramyldon would have been found. The grazing habits of paramylodon and mammoths are highlighted compared to the browsing habits of megalonyx and mastodon.

Bottom image (2024):
Working with the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History and paleontologist Wayne Thompson, I recreated an environmental scene of the fauna of the Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Salinas areas ~12,000 years ago. Jefferson’s ground sloths browse at the forest edge as Pacific mastodon browse deeper in the forest. Colombian mammoths and camels graze in open areas beyond the forest. Modern animals, like foxes, owls, jays, and amphibians fill out the rest of the landscape, reminding us that these megafauna are not long forgotten relics that came after the dinosaurs, but relatively recent residents of our landscapes that shared the world with our own species.