For 165 million years, the Dinosaurs ruled this world.
While living in their shadows, was a group of animals, which couldn't have been more different.
These were our ancestors, small furry creatures called Mammals. Clinging to safety, wherever they could.
But the Mammal's time, would time.
65 million years ago, volcanic activity started to poison the atmosphere.
The last dinosaurs were already living on a sick plant. When their nemesis arrived...
From Space.
A meteor 6 miles wide, slammed into Earth to mark the end, of the Reign of Dinosaurs.
This story, is about what happen next.
The survivors of the extinction all had 1 thing in common.
Their size.
Nearly every animal over 20 pounds have been wipe out. Leaving the world of little creatures.
Among them...
Were the Mammals.
In our final story, it will shown the last reminder of how Mammals left behind these small beginnings.
And took over the world.
In the course of 20 million years, Mammals got more, and more successful. Until they were the biggest, fiercest, and most spectacular animals on the planet. Whatever the climate, whatever the habitat, Mammals made it their own. Their great strength was their ability to adapt.
They grew to gigantic sizes.
They evolved into powerful killers, like the famous Sabertooth Cats.
And they even laid claim, to the Oceans.
Then around 4 million years ago, came Mankind's own origins. When a type of Ape came down from the trees. And walked upright.
Our story of this epic time finishes just 30,000 years ago. With the Ice Ages.
When our planet turned cold, and our ancestors hunted, in the realm...
Of the Mammoth.
NOVEMBER
30,000 YEARS AGO
On a cold snowy day in the Ice Age, a trail of footprints were left in the snow. And ahead were a group of large creatures.
For the last 50 million years, the world has been slowly getting colder.
The herd of Mammoths marched across the landscape in their annual migration they took for countless generations.
But something else has now help tip it over the edge. A change in the Earth's orbit, is taking it further from the sun. This has brought on, an Ice Age. Conditions for all life become extremely hazardous.
Even for the mighty Mammoths.
As the herd continues their trek, one from the back suddenly falls through some snow cover ice into a pond. And she cries out in distress and is only half sticking out.
The early autumn snowfall has concealed a barely frozen pond. This young female has fallen through the ice, and is trapped.
Then the herd turns back for her.
Such are the bonds between Mammoths, that the herd do not leave their stranded sister. They stay nearby. Distress, but powerless, except to comfort her.
And the herd stayed with her the entire night.
At dawn the next day, hunters begin to gather.
Before long, the scavengers have started to gather.
It could take days for the female to die, and the herd, cannot afford to wait. So sadly, they are force to abandon her. They must keep moving, to escape, the coming, Ice Age winter.
A New Island: A Mammoth Undertaking
