Trivia / Wild New World

• Portrayed by Different Species: Since Pleistocene America had many species that have close relatives in Africa, South America, and other parts of the world, the show uses this trope frequently. Examples include:
  • The cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and American lion (Panthera atrox) are played by (of course) African lions (Panthera leo), specifically lionesses. ^note  Cave art in Europe shows cave lions as maneless, even some with visible scrotums, which suggests that thick manes are unique to Panthera leo, while the cave lion-American lion lineage split off from it during the Lower Pleistocene based on DNA research and remained geographically isolated.
  • The Western camel (Camelops hesternus) is played by dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius).
  • The American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani) is played by the modern cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).
  • The steppe bison (Bison priscus) and ancient bison (Bison antiquus) are played by the American bison (Bison bison), even though steppe bison had notably longer horns (which are shown in the recreated “Blue Babe” mummy).
  • The extinct llama Hemiauchenia is played by guanacos (Lama guanicoe).
  • The stilt-legged horse (Haringtonhippus/Equus francisci) is played by onagers (Equus hemionus) and the Hagerman horse (Plesippus/Equus simplicidens) is played by Grevy zebras (Equus grevyi) and plains zebras (Equus quagga), depending on the scene.
  • The Beringian horse (Equus lambei) is played by Przewalski's horse (a subspecies of Equus ferus), though this becomes a case of Accidentally-Correct Writing, since later genetic and morphological analyses suggest that Equus ferus was a Transatlantic species (akin to many other sympatric species like brown bears, gray wolves, reindeer, and wooly mammoths) and that many taxa from North America, including E. lambei, are actually synonymous with E. ferus.
• Science Marches On:
  • Like many works of paleontological media from the 2000s, the short-faced bear is depicted as highly carnivorous and a kleptoparasite who survived via scavenging and stealing kills from smaller predators, but later research has cast doubt on this interpretation, recognizing Arctodus as a generalized omnivore much like brown and black bears, though like the latter, it likely still stole kills from other predators (it just wasn’t specialized for it).
  • Homotherium is presented as a specialized hunter of mammoths and mastodons, an interpretation mainly inspired by the Friesenhahn Cave (which the show alludes to), where we have found the remains of circa 400 juvenile mammoths and mastodons along with numerous Homotherium skeletons, but there’s little reason to think that scimitar cats were this specialized, and in fact, their distinct anatomy; reduced claws, relatively slender limbs, and sloping back all appear to be adaptations for endurance running and hunting faster-moving ungulates like bison, deer, and horses (which were easier prey than proboscidians anyway). It's also depicted with exposed canines but given their relatively small size, they would likely have been tucked behind its lips (unlike with Smilodon).
  • The stilt-legged horse is presented as a species of ass (played by onagers), based on older interpretations of these animals being descendants of asses that migrated back into the New World from Asia, but later phylogenetic and molecular studies suggested that it aligns closer with caballines (closer to true horses than asses or zebras). Granted, the phylogeny of Pleistocene equines (especially New World ones) is an area of heated debate.
  • Eremotherium is depicted with a full coat of fur, but some later researchers suggested that it was largely hairless (much like modern elephants), due to its immense size and being endemic to hot, tropical biomes across Florida, Central America, and northern South America. The same has been argued for the American mastodon, especially for the southern populations, like the ones in Florida.
  • The series treats gray wolves and dire wolves interchangeably, which is most glaring in the “Ice Age Death Trap” special, since for the longest of time, these two were considered to be sister species (with some researchers even arguing that the dire wolf was just a North American variation of Canis lupus) but a 2021 DNA study showed that dire wolves were a more basal species than previously thought, and were placed outside of Canis and into their own genus (Aenocyon), being no closer to gray wolves than to dholes or African wild dogs (albeit still part of the wolf-like canine lineage).