NOVA Season 51 Episode 14 Ice Age Footprints
- May 25, 2022
In the NOVA season 51 episode 14, Ice Age Footprints, viewers are transported to the White Sands National Park in New Mexico where archaeologists are unraveling new secrets about the Ice Age.
The episode focuses on a stunning discovery made by a team of researchers from the US Geological Survey in 2017, where an unexpected assemblage of human and animal tracks were unearthed on the parched, sun-baked rocks of a New Mexico hillside.
These footprints are believed to have been made around 12,000 years ago, during the final years of the last Ice Age. As the glaciers melted and retreated, many megafauna, including mammoths, camels, and horses roamed the vast landscapes of North America.
The story begins with the lead researcher, Sally Reynolds, and her team of geologists as they look for picturesque evidence of climate change on the geological outcrops of the White Sands National Park. They stumbled upon hundreds of tracks, most of which were left by mammoths, but some by other animals such as camels and dire wolves.
Reynolds enlisted the help of anthropologist Matthew Bennett to unravel the mystery behind the human footprints dotted amongst the ancient animal tracks. Bennett and his team of experts meticulously studied the imprints to identify the shape of the foot, its gait, and even how the person carried their weight.
The team of experts want to recreate the tracks to the best of their ability to study how humans lived at the tail end of the Ice Age. By analyzing the tracks, they can also determine the speed, the weight of the person, gender and their age limit at the time.
The discovery provided a rare glimpse into the life of these ancient people. Anthropologists surmise that they would have been in their Late Paleoindian period at the time of the tracks, a time marked by big-game hunting and changing environmental conditions in North America.
The episode takes viewers on a journey of discovery, showcasing how anthropologists, geologists, and other experts join forces to reconstruct life in the Ice Age. And while the human footprints are fascinating, the animal tracks in the area and surrounding locations paint a vivid picture of the ecology of the time.
The team of experts also explore the environment in which these people lived. With the help of computer-generated imagery (CGI), they're able to recreate the ancient ecosystem that existed when humans walked alongside mammoths, horses, and camels. The animation also brings to light the harsh climatic conditions that these early inhabitants faced, from the cold, snowy winters to the blistering summers.
Ice Age Footprints showcases the cutting-edge technology and interdisciplinary scientific work that goes into studying our ancient past. The show proves that by looking backwards with curiosity and an open mind, we can learn so much more about our human story.
