"A land discovered thousands of years before Columbus." "This is the first time people have come face to face with monstrous animals that roam the continent of North America." "ln 1968 construction workers made a chilling discovery." "They uncovered the remains of a human skeleton." "Evidence of the first people to set foot in the Americas." "God look at this." "With the bones were over 100 razor sharp spear points made from semi-precious stones." "They were the sharpest blades humans had ever created." "Forensic archaeologists discovered that the skeleton was a young child's." "Both the body and the spear points have been covered in red ochre - an earthly symbol used in rituals of life and death." "Why was this child buried with all these weapons?" "Unravelling this mystery offers tantalising clues to the secrets of a lost world." "A world where people really did meet monsters." "Radio carbon dating revealed that the child lived 13,000 years ago, the time this story takes place." "We are in the dying years of the last ice age - just moments past in the vastness of geological time, but a world quite different from the one we live in today." "Yet the people living here like She yoh (Siyo') and her only child Soon Kah (Su'nka) - are just like you and me." "They are intelligent, highly skilled - and share a complex language and emotions." "These people are living at a time when the world around them is changing and they face an uncertain future." "Several years have passed and Soon Kah has died." "Her ochre covered body is to be buried in a cliff top in Montana." "She yoh has lost her only child." "The land is warming - it should be a paradise but it isn't." "Why?" "Because once there were great creatures, and now there are only bones." "These are the ancestors of today's Native Americans." "Their story is an epic tale pieced together bit by bit from the fragments of evidence they left behind." "So what do we know of these people?" "To find out we must look further back into their history." "Long before She Yoh's child was born." "During the last ice age much of the sea was frozen in mountains of ice." "This made sea levels 70 metres lower than today." "A vast land bridge of ice joined the Asian continent to the far north of America." "Many scientists believe it was across this desolate land 14,000 yrs ago that the first people found their way into the new world." "They were pioneers." "The descendants of Siberian hunters who'd honed their survival skills in the brutality of Asia's frozen wastes." "ln discovering the Americas these people laid claim to a quarter of the world's landmass." "ln that moment - when the first human footprints appeared - the course of history was changed forever." "Successive waves of people made this epic journey." "As each new group came in and spread out to explore their new-found world, nothing could prepare them for what they were about to discover." "She Yoh and her brothers are the first people to reach this mountain range." "They are discovering a Garden of Eden." "An eternal frontier teeming with animals." "The world they've discovered is home to more species of elephant and big cat than anywhere else on Earth." "The Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)." "lts dense coat and thick layer of insulating fat make it superbly efficient at staying warm in the merciless cold." "ln its back is a fat-filled hump - a vital energy resource for times when food is scarce." "lts great tusks are used to dig for vegetation under deep snow as well as combat when rival males compete for a mate." "Like the woolly mammoth, the Musk Ox (Ovibos moschatus) is a tenacious survivor." "They are tough-horned aggressive beasts who defend themselves by gathering in a tight knit pack." "Migrating herds of Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) graze the plains." "A bizarre mix between goat and antelope." "Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) and two species of buffalo (bison bison) gather in huge herds." "There are 5 species of horse (Equus sp.)." "The horse evolved in North America 4 million years ago and subsequently migrated to the rest of the world." "This new world is home to the largest cats ever seen." "The North American lion (Panthera leo atrox) is at least a third bigger than the African lion." "ln competition is the smaller cheetah-like American Scimitar cat (Homotherium) with serrated knife-like canines - adapted for preying on young mastodons (Mammut) and mammoths." "The most formidable feline predator by far ..." "is the sabre-tooth (Smilodon fatalis)" "Armed with awesome canines - it waits to ambush its prey." "It takes ingenuity to survive in a land blasted by bitter winds." "But these are sophisticated people equipped with technology that enables them to endure the extreme climate." "To exist in temperatures as low as minus 60 these people construct cold weather clothing that will never be bettered." "Garments are cut in insulating layers from fur and tanned hides - threaded together with waterproof stitching." "They are masters of fire and bush craft." "There are killers here but it's also a land of opportunists." "Scavengers like the wolverine (Gulo gulo) make the most of any nutritious scraps left behind." "For the new settlers - there are unwelcome surprises in the New World." "These certainly aren't the remains of a wolf (Canis lupus) kill." "Heck Ah (Heca) and Sea Tan (Ceta'n) have never encountered a creature capable of such devastation." "An animal of such power that it can strip the flesh and snap the bones of a caribou like this." "They have arrived in a world of super predators." "A world of monsters." "The caribou made the same journey as people from Asia across the Bering Land Bridge." "Nomadic hunters probably followed the tracks of migrating caribou into the New World." "They are highly prized for their meat, insulating hides and sinew." "Caribou are familiar to man but man is familiar to caribou." "The great herds have long been wary of the threat of the human hunter." "These hunters use their intimate knowledge of the natural world to their advantage." "Staying down wind to avoid betraying their presence the hunters disguise themselves in caribou capes to get close enough to launch an attack." "The kill will provide Sea Tan's people with enough food forjust one day." "Night on the tundra." "The temperature plummets." "The time to take protection from the merciless cold." "The time to stay alert to dangers that prowl under the cover of darkness." "The sabre tooth - larger and more ferocious than any lion." "Armed with seven-inch daggers designed for puncturing flesh and severing arteries." "Ambush specialists that disembowel and bleed their victims to death." "They're lucky." "The sabre-tooth has never seen an animal with fire in its hands." "But these people will always have to be on their guard." "There are other monsters they are yet to meet." "The sabre tooth is the least of their worries!" "Until now, the giant ground sloth (Glossotherium harlani) has lived in a world without man." "On first encounter it's fearless:" "no animal of human size has ever posed a threat." "She Yoh and her brother can even walk up and touch this giant." "The sloth is vulnerable and man will be quick to exploit its innocent nature." "Strangers arrive." "Sea Tan and She Yoh are understandably anxious." "They thought they were alone." "Now they share their world with people armed with far more powerful weapons." "With the shock of this encounter their life will never be the same again." "Now their future is balanced on a knife-edge." "Tah Caw (Tah'ca) has introduced Sea Tan's people to a technology they've never seen." "A spear point of flawless geometry - a lethal weapon that in later years will give the early settlers of North America their name and identity" ""The Clovis"." "Contact is vital - allowing the exchange of information and raw materials." "It's also an opportunity for courtship." "Clovis, New Mexico is where this kind of spear point was originally unearthed in 1932 - and it's from this town that the first Americans derive their name." "It was the first of many finds later made throughout the continent." "By perfecting the skills to make and use the Clovis point these people are in possession of a devastatingly powerful and accurate weapon." "The Clovis are master craftsmen - they are superbly skilled flint knappers." "The semi-precious stones like chert, quartz crystal, jasper and obsidian needed to make these points are so prized it's not uncommon for the Clovis to walk 1500 kilometres in search of new sources." "It takes years to master these techniques." "Their weapons are exquisite - designed to maximise penetration." "Armed with the Clovis point - humans now held the most deadly weapon the world had ever seen." "Now they can hunt the very largest of animals." "Weighing up to eight tons, the woolly mammoth is one of the largest animals in North America." "These vast creatures provide the Clovis with fat, nutritious marrow and bone for making tools." "Mammoth bones have been found all over America." "ln Arizona 8 Clovis spear points were discovered embedded in an adult mammoth skeleton." "Each weapon inflicted a mortal wound." "Hunters fire spears in deadly quick succession - killing animals in their prime." "Here they select the herd leader - the matriarch." "The Clovis have developed a hunting strategy that will have dire consequences." "Celebration." "A time to re-enact the hunt and the kill." "The Clovis have a spiritual dimension to their culture." "lts possible that when the hunter holds a spear he believes he can harness some greater power." "A slain mammoth can provide enough food to satisfy hungry stomachs for weeks but it's always risky to return to the kill - it's a magnet for the most fearsome of predators." "The short faced bear (Arctodus simus)- the largest and most intimidating mammalian predator that has ever hunted on land." "It's an astoundingly efficient killer." "Capable of running at speeds in excess of 60 kilometres per hour." "Despite the menace of predators the Clovis manage to survive and prosper." "The population endures periodic losses - in fact Clovis numbers are rapidly increasing." "ln virgin lands with plentiful resources, a population of only 200 can increase to 70,000 in just 30 generations." "A thousand years." "The time it takes the Clovis to conquer the Americ" "She Yoh doesn't know it but her only child is soon to die:" "she is born into a world that is in decline." "The climate is rapidly warming and the ice age is coming to a dramatic end." "Massive ice fields are melting and the American continent is reshaping." "It's at this time North American animals like the sabre tooth, mammoth and the short faced bear are vanishing." "But why?" "ls it the trauma of this accelerated period of global warming?" "Probably not." "These animals have survived 17 similar climate cycles so why is this one proving so fatal." "Humans are here!" "The one thing that distinguishes this ice age from all the others that have gone before." "The Clovis may have thought they had discovered an eternal frontier with an inexhaustible bounty of animals." "Yet within as little as 1000 years of human arrival 30 kinds of animal are becoming extinct." "Coincidence?" " Or were the Clovis responsible?" "America was once home to 5 kinds of horse." "There were also two types of camel (Camelops sp.)." "The Clovis slaughtered horses and camels." "The blood of an extinct horse was recently identified on a Clovis spear point." "A bone from an extinct camel (Camelops hesternus) shows the signs of human butchery." "Many scientists are convinced that the Clovis were responsible for killing all the continents great herbivores." "And with the disappearance of most of the large plant eaters like the mammoth, horse, camel and ground-sloth - predators could no longer be sustained." "If humans are to blame they are guilty of causing the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs perished 65 million years ago." "She Yoh's child is dead." "Here on a cliff top in Montana her people gather to lay her child to rest." "They carry hundreds of spear points to place in the child's grave." "Why?" "ls it a time of starvation?" "Are the Clovis points being laid down as a gesture to appease the gods?" "Have their deadly weapons become redundant in an empty land?" "One thing is certain:" "at the time this child is buried - all the animals the Clovis spear point was designed to slaughter have vanished." "Once there were great creatures and now there are only bones." "The loss of the New World's giant animals may have forced the Clovis to reassess their relationship with nature." "There is evidence that they changed their ways and became a people living in greater harmony with the natural world." "For the next 12,000 years there were no more extinctions in the Americas." "Then - strangers from foreign lands turned up on the horizon." "With Columbus in 1492 a new wave of pioneers - Europeans - landed on America's shores and once again a new group of humans laid claim to the continent." "Later the conquistadors arrived and the image of men galloping on horses (Equus caballus) struck fear into the hearts of the native Americans." "They believed they were seeing monstrous ghosts." "Ironically horses were returning to the land of their evolutionary origin - 12,000 years after their predecessors had perished on the Clovis spear point." "To the Clovis the horse had meant only meat." "But the European pioneers had learnt to exploit the horse for a different use." "Humans were now armed with a weapon far more deadly than the Clovis spear point and history was set to repeat itself." "Horse mounted hunters wielding rapidly repeating rifles had turned into ruthlessly efficient killers." "Within 70 years they slaughtered 60 million buffalo." "The vast buffalo herds of the American prairie once formed the greatest aggregation of mammals ever to populate the earth." "And yet one of nature's great marvels was lost." "Bison (Bison bison) were massacred for their tongues and shot for sport." "ln 1893 only 500 wild buffalo remain." "Native Americans lost their livelihood." "The smoking gun is in our hands." "Somewhere in our battle for survival we acquired the power to cause extinction."