Ice AgeThe Laurentide Ice Sheet that covered most of Canada and the northern U.S. contained enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by <hl>over 200 feet</hl> when it finally melted. Its weight was so immense it pushed the Earth's crust down — parts of Canada are still slowly rebounding today.SrcUSGS
Next evidence →During the Ice Age, wild horses roamed North America by the millions alongside mammoths and bison. Ancient cave art and fossil evidence show they were stocky, zebra-like animals quite different from modern domesticated horses.
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- The Elasmotherium, nicknamed the "Siberian unicorn," was a massive Ice Age rhino that stood 6 feet at the shoulder and may have carried a single enormous horn up to 3 feet long. It survived until roughly 29,000 years ago.
- During the Last Glacial Maximum (roughly 26,000–19,000 years ago), ice sheets up to 2 miles thick covered most of Canada, northern Europe, and Scandinavia. Sea levels dropped 400 feet, exposing vast areas of continental shelf.
- Cave lions were about 25% larger than modern African lions and roamed from Europe to Alaska across the Bering Land Bridge. Prehistoric cave paintings in France's Chauvet Cave depict them hunting in packs without manes.
- Horses actually originated in North America around 55 million years ago and crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Asia. They went extinct in the Americas roughly 10,000 years ago and were only reintroduced by Spanish colonizers in the 1500s.
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