Tristan Hughes explores Ancient America's true age; how 19th-century fossil discoveries across North America revealed a history far older than previously believed, challenging the notion that the Americas were a 'New World.'Tristan is joined by Professor Caroline Winterer as they discuss walking on 4 billion-year-old rocks in Eastern Canada, uncovering the first trilobites and the sensational dinosaur discoveries like the T-Rex and Brontosaurus that mesmerised the public and scientific community alike.More on:Ice Age America:https://open.spotify.com/episode/4KZruCMwpO7TakuiMs7DMp?si=2b1fdca8b18c4ef4The Ancient Amazon:https://open.spotify.com/episode/5YxnzfGa4x4Z8l4JE6Uwmh?si=0ec9d00afb0b476eTyrannosaurus Rex:https://open.spotify.com/episode/3uxH3HHjSuEk0mHmjFU9k7?si=1f57b9a555ac4bffPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.All music from Epidemic SoundsSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here
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The New World, a term that for centuries was applied to the Americas. But by the 19th century, this idea that America was a young continent compared to Europe and Asia, well, it was becoming obsolete. The remains of great ancient creatures of terrifying beasts were starting to be unearthed. Suddenly, the reality of just how old their continent was began to dawn on Americans.
A history more ancient than anyone could ever have imagined. A place of primordial natural beauty. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host.
Today we're exploring the story of Deep Time America, how in the 19th century people began unearthing countless fossils of ancient animals and dinosaurs that revealed how the New World might in fact be the oldest world of all, challenging the commonly held view of the time that the world was in fact only 6,000 years old. Now our guest today is Professor Caroline Winterer from Stanford University.
Caroline has recently written a new book exploring this deep time revolution in America and it was wonderful to get her on the podcast. We're going to explore everything from 4 billion year old rock formations in northeast Canada to 500 million year old trilobites and of course, dinosaur remains.
We'll be examining the dinosaur craze that seized America through the 19th century as great sea beasts and dinosaur remains start to be discovered, and much more. Forget Jurassic Park, think Jurassic America. Caroline, it is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
Now, I'm used to on the podcast sometimes delving into particular monuments or focusing in on a particular period of ancient history or prehistory. This one feels like we're going to be talking in millions of years and so on. Is this the story of actually how old North America is and the misconceptions there were about that in previous centuries?
Yeah, there were a lot of misconceptions until very recently, actually, 200 years ago, people around the world thought that the Americas were only about 6,000 years old, which was the age of the Earth. And within the space of a mere century, they absolutely changed their minds about it, thinking it was a billion or even more years old. So that was quite a change of their minds.
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