What was the Ice Age like? – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.hey it's Danny a few years ago I went on a trip to the US state of Alaska while I was there I got to visit these glaciers it was incredible to see so much ice and snow in one place someone named Emily has a question that has to do with ice let's call Emily now hi Danny hi Emily I have a question for you what was the ice agent right oh that's a great question you might have heard of the Ice Age before maybe you've seen movies or books about the ice age that include animals we don't have today like woolly mammoths and Sabertooth cats or maybe this is new to you I'm curious when you hear the words Ice Age what do you think of now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss okay ready I don't know how you answered but I bet the image in your mind included well ice lots of it maybe you pictured something like those glaciers in Alaska or animals surviving in the snowy icy poles of the earth if you live somewhere that gets cold in the winter maybe you pictured something you've seen closer to home like icicles hanging off trees or pie of snow and you're right simply put an ice age is when Earth gets colder and icier this has happened more than once over the billions of years that the Earth has existed scientists think there have been at least five major ice ages the time people usually call the ice age is the most recent one it began only 2.5 million years ago during this Ice Age the temperature of the earth hasn't always been the same it's gotten colder and less cold over years and years but during the coldest period of the Ice Age there was way more ice and snow than there is on Earth today and that ice and snow lasted for thousands and thousands of years imagine what it would be like if instead of having winter snow for a few months this year it was cold and icy all year and the next year and the year after and for the rest of your life and on and on for thousands of years you'd have to get pretty good at surviving in the cold right well turns out lots of living things did figure out how to survive through the ice age all over the world scientists have found remains of animals who lived through the ice AG's coldest years these ancient remains are fossils like check this out this is a fossil skeleton of a woolly mammoth when it was alive this huge animal looks similar to an elephant but with a big woolly coat of fur this woolly mammoth skeleton was discovered in the US state of Michigan these days much of Michigan usually gets cold and snowy in winter but by summer it heats up again and the snow melts but back when this woolly mammoth was alive Michigan was covered in ice and snow year round that thick fur coat helped this Mammoth keep warm but even at the ice AG's coldest not everywhere was snow and ice all the time actually a lot of the Earth was not snowy during the coldest years of the Ice Age including much of the United States still even those not snowy places didn't look look like they do today because so much of the Earth's water was frozen in huge sheets of ice and snow many areas not covered in ice had less water than they do today less water meant fewer thick forests and more places that look like this grasslands grasslands hosted some animals that couldn't survive in constant ice and snow like check out this one this is a sloth these days sloths tend to live high in the Trees of tropical rainforests but take a look at the bones of a sloth from the colder years of the Ice Age next to a human the sloth looks huge if that sloth tried to hang from a thin jungle Branch uh it would fall this ancient animal is a giant ground sloth these big creatures lived on the ground feeding off of grasses and other plants some animals that proud grasslands back then were almost identical to the animals we have on Earth today like these guys Lions today Lions can only be found on the continents of Africa and Asia but during the colder years of the Ice Age they roamed across much of North America and here's one Ice Age creature you might recognize people humans survived through the coldest years of the Ice Age too so in summary an ice age is a period of millions of years when the whole earth cools but it's way more complicated than just ice all over the place during the coldest years of the Ice Age much of the Earth was covered in ice and snow year round but many places were not ice and snow in those years but instead grasslands from fossils we've learned about many animals who lived during that time some we don't have on Earth any any more like mammoths and giant sloths and some we do like lions and even humans and there's more left to discover every year we find more and more clues about these chilly years on our planet keep an eye out for discoveries near where you live that's all for this week's question thanks for asking Emily now for the next episode we reached into our question jar and picked out three questions sent into us that were thinking about answering next when this video is done playing you'll get to vote on one you can choose from why do some trees grow pine cones could you make a real house out of cookies and candy or who invented sledding so submit your vote when the video's over we want to hear from all of you watching there are Mysteries all around us stay curious and see you next week