Courtesy PBS
NOVA: ICE AGE DEATH TRAP
Friendly Rating: All ages
Safety Rating: Mostly safe, although sensitive young ones might be bothered by how they think the mastodons were killed
Quality Rating: Very good.
Series episode airs tonight on PBS, check your local listings for time
This is one of those shows I watch with a certain fondness and nostalgia. When I was a kid, I loved this kind of show. It set me off dreaming about becoming an archaeologist or paleontologist, until I was told how tedious and exacting work on a dig was.
And whether or not your kids decide to go into paleontology or not, shows like this can help them try on different dreams. In this particular episode of PBS’ science series NOVA, construction workers digging out a basin that had been a lake bed, lo, these many eons ago, discover all these bones.
Turns out the bones belonged to a bunch of prehistoric creatures, but mostly mastodons. So the scientists come in and pull out as many bones as they can find before the construction of a new dam begins. They have six weeks and find some pretty amazing stuff.
Now, it does get sad when they come up with a pretty strong hypothesis about why so many bones were found in this one place – and the scientists do talk about the fact that these were living creatures who appear to have suffered a pretty nasty death. But then they are off checking out another anomaly in the pile, and while it sure looks like it may have been human beings, things don’t quite date from the right time.
Anyway, it’s a fascinating and relatively fast moving hour. And let us know if your kids found it interesting.
