In May 2008, a scientific team made worldwide headlines by announcing evidence of a previously unsuspected impact from space that had devastated prehistoric North America at the end of the last Ice Age. According to this controversial new claim, the extinction of more than 34 types of large prehistoric animals (or “megafauna”) was caused not by climate change or the arrival of the first human hunters, but by the massive breakup of a comet over the Great Lakes region.
Mammoth skeleton
Near the end of the last ice age, 13,000 years ago, the mammoths, with some 35 other groups of mammals, disappeared from North America. For four decades, debate has raged over the cause of their abrupt demise. Now NOVA presents an exclusive in-depth investigation of a bold and controversial new hypothesis, which suggests that a massive impact from space could be the culprit.
Tuesday at 8 p.m. on PBS-HD.
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