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The store of pollen paints a picture of the plains of 13,000 years ago,
花粉紛紛揚揚聚集，勾畫出1300年前的大平原。
a picture that looks very different from the open prairie grassland of today.
同今日遼闊的草原相比，當時的景象則截然不同。
But why did this region look so different back then?
但為何差別如此之大?
The ice sheets to the north, although retreating 13,000 years ago, still dominated the climate here.
盡管1300年來冰層不斷北移，但該區仍屬冰原性氣候。
It was much milder and wetter than today, ideal conditions for woodland to flourish.
氣候甚至更為濕潤，也更利于林木茂密生長。
This is how much of the northern plains must have looked when the first people arrived.
這也許是第一批來到此處的人類在北方草原看到的景象。
Not open prairies as it is now, but a parkland of trees and grassy meadows.
當時這里并不是平原，而是稀樹高原和茂密的田野。
This is a relic of those times. The Osage orange.
這是桑橙樹，是一種經歷過以前那種氣候，一直存活至今的樹木。
Every autumn it produces these enormous fruits, huge numbers of them, more the size of great fruits than mere oranges.
每年秋季這種樹就會結出大量果實，而且果實的個頭比普通的橘子要大很多。
But there's no animal alive today that's big enough to pick and eat them, so this bump of crop just rots.
但現今生存的動物身軀不夠龐大，無法采摘和食用這些果實，所以這些果實只能爛掉。
The Osage orange glory days are long gone.
桑橙樹繁盛的時代已經過去。
But its harvest was once an annual feast for many ice age animals, including mammoths.
曾經每年桑橙樹收獲果實的季節，對冰河世紀許多動物來說是一場盛宴。
Fruit must have been a real treat for these grass eaters.
比如說猛犸象。對猛犸象這樣的食草動物來說，水果無疑是美食。
