Show cats as large as lions lived in maryland cave monster cats as big as lions or tigers and probably just as fierce were the terrors of western maryland about a million years ago bones of these creatures together with those of 48 46 other animals who lived near the city of cumberland at some interval early in the last ice age have been described by a smithsonian institution paleontologist these bones were gathered from a limestone cavern opened when a railroad cut was being constructed and represent a strange assortment of creatures ranging from mastodon to crocodile presumption The is that in ice age days the cavern was a natural trap with an opening directly on top through which the animals fell once inside there was no way to get out it was a curious assemblage of northern and southern animals bones of wolverines rines and an d martens types now found only in the far northern woods are mingled with those of tapirs which now range no farther north than central america this can only mean the smithsonian man believes that the bones were assembled only over a very cc considerable period possibly several thousand years during which there was a notable change in the climate the ice age extended ocr 0 cr approximately two million years but during this time there were several retreats and advances of the glaciers with intervals of relatively warm climate |