Ice Age Giants

North America, a continent that was half covered by ice that was up to two miles thick. Yet this frozen land also boasts the most impressive cast of Ice Age giants in the world. The fossil record reveals creatures that would dwarf their modern-day relatives and a climate that they depended on.

In the mountains of Transylvania, a cave sealed for thousands of years reveals grisly evidence for a fight to the death between two starving giants, a cave bear, and a cave lion. These animals, which would dwarf their modern-day relatives, were probably driven into conflict by the pressure on food.

Even after thousands of years of ice crushing the northern hemisphere, many of the great giants of the ice age still walked the earth. It was only when the world had warmed up again that mammoths, woolly rhinos, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths and glyptodonts finally became extinct. Why?