In prehistoric times what creatures lived you Rhode Island?

Answer 1

If you limit the time to the formation of Narragansett Bay at the end of the last ice age (about 12,000 years ago) some of the animals living in Rhode Island might have included:

Short-faced bears

Dire wolves

Stag moose

Sea mink

Caribou

Lynx

Fisher cats

Various kinds of seals

Smaller predators such as coyote would probably have been driven out by wolves. The climate was too cold for deer and the lack of broad-leaf trees and nut-bearing trees meant a shortage of food during winter.

Because the climate was cold for several thousand years, other possibilities include saber tooth tigers. American lions were the most common predator in America but they might not have been in Rhode Island due to the initially cold climate.

Smaller animals might have included chipmunks and red squirrels both of which tend to arrive fairly early.

Until the climate warmed enough for broad-leaf trees the area would have resembled tundra with primarily spruce and evergreens. Therefore many modern animals would not have lived here until about 8000 years ago when the climate approached modern levels.

The pleistocene extinction occurred at about the same time Narragansett Bay was formed, so modern animals and modern plants began to arrive as the climate warmed.

My book "The History and Future of Narragansett Bay" (Universal Press, 2006) has other information. The Bay started as a fresh-water lake incidentally. Capers Jones