Ice Age Imperials

May 26, 2018  – August 26, 2018

Step back in time and explore Ice Age Imperials, on display at the History Museum of Mobile starting Saturday, May 26, 2018 until August 26, 2018.

Imagine traveling 20,000 years into the past to a period in our planet’s history when the environment was dramatically different than we know it today. Fierce cats, enormous mastodons and wooly mammoths, six-feet-tall beavers, and other giant creatures roamed the land, and every day was a struggle for survival.

This story will be presented like never before, through direct handling and interaction with real fossils from such ancient animals as the giant (five ton!) ground sloth, the cave bear, the largest breed of lion to ever live, and the herds of shaggy elephants that once covered North America.

Using two full-scale dioramas, a series of interactive displays, and other educational components, Ice Age Imperials will have visitors asking questions like: When and where was the Ice Age? What was life like in Alabama during that time? How do today’s animals compare to their extinct Ice Age relatives?

Exhibit Highlights Include:

  • Full-Scale Dioramas: Two central dioramas feature the fierce-looking Saber tooth cat, the larger-than-life Wooly Mammoth, the Woodland Musk Ox, and the role of early human hunters.
     
  • Large And In Charge: A three-sided display explores some of the largest mammals of the Ice Age, including the extinct Short-Faced Bear, Dire Wolf, and Giant Beaver.
     
  • Teamwork: Large 3-D puzzles of a Mastodon and Saber tooth cat require a team effort to assemble.
     
  • Dig It: An Ice Age fossil “dig box” reveals surprise remains of extinct creatures.
     
  • Learn More: Discover more about the Ice Age and the formation, nature, and movement of glaciers, as well as the massive size of Ice Age glaciers.
     

Ice Age Imperials explores how today’s animal life compares to its extinct Ice Age relatives, and about the way of life of the earliest peoples, the Paleo-hunters, that once inhabited North America. Ice Age Imperials will also provide a rare opportunity to “touch the Ice Age.”