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Mud from the ancient riverbanks is good for building nests.
古老河岸邊的泥漿有利于筑巢。
lt also holds more evidence that will help us to reconstruct the ice age past.
很多證據表明，這將幫助我們重現過去的冰河世紀。
Every now and then,new clues surface, hinting at what else might lie beneath.
新的線索表面有時暗示著其他可能深藏的東西。
ln this dried-up pond in South Dakota, known as Hot Springs, scientists unearthed great piles of bones.
在被稱為溫泉的南達科達州干涸的池塘邊，科學家發掘了成堆的骨頭。
What kind of creature died here? The bones reveal it stood four metres tall and weighed more than 10 tonnes.
什么生物死在這里？骨頭揭示了它有四米高，重達10噸。
There's nothing fitting that description living here today.
今天沒有這樣大小的生物存在。
Here's the give-away, a pair of tusks two metres long, the trademark of a Columbian mammoth, the biggest animal to roam the ice age plains.
這是贈品，一對兩米長的象牙，一個哥倫比亞猛犸象的商標，冰河時代的平原上最大的動物。
By comparing it to elephants in Africa today, can we shed light on how those ice age elephants lived and what they lived on?
和今天的非洲象相比，我們能夠解釋冰河時期的大象生活和它們如何生活的嗎？
These are mammoth teeth, huge molars the size of bricks.
這些是猛犸象的牙齒，巨大的臼齒和磚塊差不多大。
They have deep ridges very similar to those of modern elephants, suggesting mammoths, too, survived by grinding vast amounts of grass.
它們有深深的脊，和現代大象十分相似，表明猛犸象也靠磨大量的草為生。
Plant fragments trapped between the ridges can still be identified today.
今天還能看見在脊骨中間的殘留的植物碎片。
Thousands of years after this mammoth died, we know exactly what it ate for its last meal.
在猛犸象死了，幾千年之后，我們很明確地知道它的最后一餐吃的是什么。
Grass is a tough, abrasive food. Even with protective enamel ridges, these teeth would gradually have worn down.
草是強硬和需要研磨的食物。即使是有保護釉質的脊，這些牙齒也會逐漸被磨損。
But just like modern elephants, the mammoths had evolved a way to deal with this.
但是如同現代象一樣，猛犸象進化到可以處理這一切。
As one set of teeth was eroded, another grew up to take its place.
一套牙齒被侵蝕了，新的一套又出現了。
The evidence suggests they had six sets in all, to last a lifetime, up to 60 years.
證據表明在它們60多年的人生中，有六套牙齒。
The South Dakota mammoth didn't make it to old age and it was not alone.
南達科他州的猛犸象沒能活到晚年，它并不孤獨。
The site turned out to be a mammoth graveyard, hiding more than 50 skeletons, all from animals in their prime.
這片遺址變成了猛犸象的墓地，有超過50具骨骼在此，都是處于它們的鼎盛時期。
There's no sign they were killed by hunters, so how did so many healthy mammoths die?
沒有跡象表明它們被獵人殺害，這么多健康的猛犸象是怎么死的呢？
