During the last Ice Age, there were many large, interesting mammals such assaber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, mastodons, and mammoths. These animals have long since gone extinct and are known mostly from fossils, frozen mummified carcasses, and even from ancient cave drawings.

The world’s largest ice age fossil deposits are Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, and Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California. Big Bone Lick was the first paleontological dig in North America and arguably the birth place of the world wide study of modern paleontology.

The last Ice Age started about 70,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago (during the Pleistocene epoch). The Earth at that time was much colder than it is now. Snow accumulated on much of the land, glaciers and ice sheets extended over large areas and the sea levels were lower. These phenomena changed the surface of the earth forming lakes, changing the paths of rivers, eroding land, and depositing sand, gravel, and rocks along the glaciers’ paths.