Giant vampire bats, dire wolves, the American Pleistocene lion—this was the
world of the Paleo-Indians in North America, a continent very different from the
one on which Europeans landed many years later.
Some of the animals would
have been familiar to Paleo-Indian peoples, since these species, like them, had
crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia. Others, such as the dire wolf, would
have been new and fearsome. Many were hunted by the Paleo-Indians, giving these
early settlers of North America a reputation as big-game hunters. Others,
however, were competitors, and even dangerous, because these animals were also
hunters.
This exhibition presents the competitors of the
Paleo-Indian hunters that still live today—