Even before humans came to live on the earth, though, prehistoric creatures—dinosaurs, ancient reptiles, and flying reptiles like the Pterodactyl—roamed the Big Bend region. Paleontologists have excavated the remains of numerous different species in the park. The park land is especially significant to scientists trying to understand the changes in the earth's climate around the time of the dinosaurs' extinction. The Big Bend lies near the Yucatan peninsula, where many researchers believe a meteor hit the earth and sparked great global climate changes at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Peoples of the Big Bend

At Big Bend National Park, only two prehistoric archeological sites are presently considered "public"—the Hot Springs pictograph site and the Chimneys. As research is completed on other archeological sites, they may be opened to the public, also. There are six National Register historic sites or districts in Big Bend National Park: Castolon Historic District, Hot Springs Historic Site, The Mariscal Mining District, the Homer Wilson Ranch Site, Rancho Estelle, and Luna's Jacal. Thousands of archeological sites within the park hold remnants of the material remains of 10,000 years of Native American occupation of the Big Bend. When properly studied, these sites can provide very valuable information about past lifeways.

Late Paleo-Indian Period (ca. 8000 - 6500 B.C.)

At the end of the last ice age, the climate was much cooler and wetter, and woodlands covered much of the Big Bend. Since about 9000 B.C. the climate has gradually become warmer and drier, and there has been a gradual influx of heat- and drought-adapted plants. Evidence of Paleo-lndian presence has been recorded in the park but no studies have been done which explain local human adaptation during this period. The earliest inhabitants lived a nomadic hunting and gathering lifestyle that was adapted to the cooler and wetter climate that prevailed in that age. Throughout the Paleo-lndian period, people hunted large game animals as their primary source of materials for food, clothing, and shelter.

Archaic Period (ca. 6500 B.C. - A.D. 1000)

After the last glacial episode, woodlands gave way to arid-adapted plant communities at lower elevations. The slowly changing climate caused a decline in the numbers of large game animals, primarily bison. Native American groups of the Archaic Period adapted to the changing climate by developing a hunting and gathering lifestyle so successful that it remained virtually unchanged for about 7500 years. The Archaic Period people hunted smaller game with a spear that was propelled by a spear-thrower, called an atl-atl. This period is characterized by a strong dependence on plant foods, and a more structured social organization. People learned skillful ways to exploit the environment and developed a rich material culture that involved the intensive use of available plants and animals. More than 200 plant and animal foodstuffs were here for the taking, but the vastness of the desert necessitated that people be semi-nomadic to take advantage of them. Their diet included walnuts, persimmons, the fruit and blossoms of yucca, the fruit and young pads of pricklypear, and mesquite beans. They fashioned baskets and sandals from lechuguilla fiber and yucca leaves. We know that some of Big Bend's desert springs have been flowing for thousands of years, because Archaic Culture sites are commonly concentrated around today's springs. These sites may include rock shelters and hearths, or fire rings. A higher density of late Archaic sites indicates a more efficient adaptation and larger, denser population. An expansion of the Jornada Mogollon culture from southeastern New Mexico into extreme West Texas occurred at the close of the Late Archaic.

Late Prehistoric Period (ca. A.D. 1000 - 1535)

By 1000 A.D. the native people of the Big Bend had come under the influence of the Jornada Mongollon, with its ceramics, agriculture, and sedentary lifestyle. During the Late Prehistoric, Indians of the Big Bend began using the bow and arrow, and groups northwest of the area were producing pottery. Agricultural villages existed near present-day Presidio, Texas, and horticulture or simple agriculture was practiced by Indian groups in the area that is now the park. In most areas to the east, the Late Archaic hunting and gathering lifeway persisted into the Historic Period. The period is characterized by increased interregional trading.

The Historic Period (ca. A.D. 1535 - present)

In the 1500's, the Spaniards enslaved the Indians and substantially changed their culture. In the 1640s the major Indians here were the Tobosas, Salineros, Chisos, and Tepehuanes, who fought Spanish encroachment and enslavement. Spanish horses enabled the Mescalero Apaches to expand their range and dominate the area by the 1740s. They became the Chisos Apaches. By the 1840s, the Comanches, also with Spanish horses, dominated an enormous range focuses on the Big Bend. The Comanches supplemented their desert-derived lifestyle by annually raiding Mexican and later Anglo-American settlements and wagon trains. The gold discoveries in California in the mid-l 800's hastened the Comanches' decline. When Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845, the US military became the Indians' antagonist. Military forts were built along the route that passed through here to California gold fields.

In the 1930's many people who loved the Big Bend country saw that it was a land of unique contrast and beauty that was worth preserving for future generations. The State of Texas passed legislation to acquire land in the area which was to become the Texas Canyons State Park. In 1935, the Federal Government passed legislation that would enable the acquisition of the land for a national park. The State of Texas deeded the land that they had acquired to the Federal government, and on June 12, 1944, Big Bend National Park became a reality.

Prehistoric Creatures of the Big Bend

In 1971, Douglas A. Lawson, a graduate student from the University of Texas at Austin, found a large bone in the Javelina Formation in Big Bend National Park. This proved to be the radius bone of a pterodactyl larger that any previously known. He named this huge pterodactyl Quetzalcoatlus northropi for Quetzalcoatlus, an Aztec god who took the form of a feathered serpent. Seventy-five percent of the wing skeleton was recovered. Several smaller specimens confirmed the nature of the large bone, proving it to belong to the largest flying creature ever found. Quetzalcoatlus was indeed a giant among the pterodactyls, most of who were the size of birds. Although most pterosaurs lived on or near water, the rocks containing Quetzalcoatlus were formed far from the sea. The fossils are on display in the Texas Memorial Museum, University of Texas at Austin.

Flight tests with models of Quetzalcoatlus suggest that it was primarily a soaring creature, controlling its direction by turning its head, flexing the three fingers on the wing's leading edge, and by warping the wing tip. These giants, the last of the flying reptiles, were able to climb or dive by changing the wing sweep, but were unstable in gusty winds.

Dinosaur remains have been discovered in the non-marine Aguja and Javelina Formations in the park. Although dinosaur remains are relatively uncommon at Big Bend, skeletal remains of duck-billed, horned, and the large sauropod and carnivorous dinosaurs have been found.

The skull and jaws of a 50 foot-long crocodile were found in the upper Aguja Formation near Glenn Springs. The specimen is on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

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