Ice Age

  • Illustration of giant lizard fighting off a giant bear-like marsupial

    Climate change helped kill off super-sized Ice Age animals in Australia

    A new study has compared the diet of a variety of Australian megafaunal herbivores from the period when they were widespread (350,000 to 570,000 years ago) to a period when they were in decline (30,000 to 40,000 years ago) by studying their fossil teeth. The analysis suggests that climate change had a significant impact on their diets and may well have been a primary factor in their extinction. Read More

    Jan 26, 2017

  • Smilodon and bison

    Evidence shows starvation did not cause saber-tooth cat extinction

    The latest study of the microscopic wear patterns on the teeth of the American lions and saber-toothed cats that roamed North America in the late Pleistocene found that they were living well off the fat of the land in the period just before they went extinct. Read More

    Dec 26, 2012