Long before skyscrapers towered above Manhattan and theme parks sprawled across Florida, the American landscape was dominated by a wholly different kind of attraction.
Where now celebrity is king, long ago mammoths ruled the Hollywood Hills.
And bustling Denver Airport is situated on what was once a vast grazing ground for Ice Age wildlife…
BBC TWO's Wild New World is a detective story that takes clues from the present to unlock the secrets of prehistoric North America.
Using the latest scientific research, filming techniques and computer-generated imagery (CGI), it recreates a time 13,000 years ago when people first entered this vast, unexplored new world where great Ice Age animals roamed the land.
Programme 1 - Wild New World: Land of the Mammoth
A woolly mammoth At the end of the last Ice Age, in the far north-west of North America there was a land that doesn't exist today - Beringia.
It was a land of giants, where woolly mammoths roamed alongside musk oxen, giant short-faced bears challenged huge American lions, and the snowy plains teemed with bison, wild horses and the bizarre looking saiga antelope.
Programme 2 - Wild New World: Canyonlands
Canyonlands takes us to the very heart of the American south-west where the dramatic landscapes of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River and the giant cactus forests of the Arizona desert form the backdrop to this next episode in the history of Ice Age North America.
Programme 3 - Wild New World: Ice Age Oasis
Mammoths and a short-faced bear Today the sunshine state of Florida seems a world away from any Ice Age. It is here that Space Shuttles are launched – a symbol of man's unquenchable desire to explore and colonise taken to its astronomical limits.
This programme takes viewers back 13,000 years to when man was exploring this area for the very first time.
Programme 4 - Wild New World: Edge of the Ice
This episode reveals that America can boast one of the world's biggest ever waterfalls. The only thing is that it no longer exists! But it did 12,000 years ago and using the latest digital technology, Edge of the Ice spectacularly brings it back to life.
Programme 5 - Wild New World: American Serengeti
At the end of the last Ice Age the Great Plains of North America were perhaps the richest grasslands to have ever existed, rivalling the East African plains in both the diversity and abundance of animals - a true American Serengeti.
Programme 6 - Wild New World: Mammoths to Manhattan
Mammoths to Manhattan travels through time, from the end of the Ice Age to the present day, to see how North America's ildlife has adapted to living alongside people.
Back then, it was a land dominated by giant beasts, today it is a land of towering skyscrapers.
The episode starts with the extinction of its biggest mammals, some two thirds of which disappeared soon after the first people arrived.
More details about the series on
bbc.co.uk.
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