[music playing] NARRATOR: The following
is a graphic depiction of a violent prehistoric battle. Viewer discretion is advised. In a cave in rural Wyoming
lies a time capsule from the Ice Age. [bear bellowing] It contains not one, but two
super-sized mammals who once ruled North America-- ferocious beasts who dwarf even
the most powerful predators of today. Now, new discoveries bring
to life these true Ice Age monsters. They're the Earth's
first fighters, the ultimate predators. New discoveries in
forensic science bring to life the
prehistoric art of war. This is "Jurassic Fight Club." Today, our planet
is in the throes of dramatic global change. Rising temperatures are
triggering chain reactions that have adverse effects
throughout the planet. [rocks rumbling] But does the Earth hold clues to
prove this has happened before? And if so, how have past
dramatic shifts thrown off the balance of
the natural order? [whooshing] [music playing] 10,000 years ago, the close
of the Pleistocene Era. Earth is very different
from the way it is now-- rising temperatures
and an Ice Age that saw great glaciers covering
most of the northern hemisphere. Cold-adapted creatures are
driven into extinction, allowing new plants and
animals to take their place. In North America, glaciers
that once covered New York City to a depth of over
two miles retreat under rising temperatures. These massive sheets
of ice gouge deep scars in the landscape, leaving
behind a legacy carved in stone. In what will become Wyoming,
the dramatic climate changes have a catastrophic
impact on life. Giant beasts like the woolly
mammoth and giant sloth die off. They're replaced by better
adapted creatures that migrate across land
bridges from the north. But this migration
has repercussions. [animals roaring] Massive mammals clash for the
first time, and some of these are predators. In 1971, in a remote
location in Wyoming, paleontologists discover a
massive hole in the ground. The cave opening acts as a trap,
where unwary creatures fell in and dropped to their death. They named the location
Natural Trap Cave. Laying 85 feet
below the opening, in a 100-foot diameter
underground cavern, they find the remains of
thousands of Ice Age mammals. Among them, the broken skeleton
of a giant bear named Arctodus. LARRY D. MARTIN: The thing that
impresses everybody when they first see an Arctodus fossil
is just how big it is. The largest bears living today
are the Alaskan brown bears, the Kodiak bears,
and the polar bears. And an Arctodus would
be about twice as large as either one of those. NARRATOR: The size of
this bear was staggering. Arctodus stood 12 feet tall. Its body was 15 feet long,
and it weighed a massive 2,500 pounds. It towered over
today's Grizzlies. Paleontologists continue
to study the remains. Along with sheer mass, Arctodus
had two distinctive features that differentiated
it from modern bears. The first was its oversized
teeth and short, but powerful, muzzle from which it
derives its nickname-- the short-faced bear. BLAINE SCHUBERT:
This is the skull of a giant short-faced
bear, and you can see why they're named this. They have a very shortened
snout in proportion to the overall skull. Their skull is actually
very wide for its size. Here are the canines. You can see they're
very long and robust. The teeth here are
very bear-like. They're just
basically bear teeth that are scaled up,
developed for crushing. Very powerful muscles would
have attached right here, here, and up here that
would have given it a very powerful bite. If we open the mouth, then, we
can see those large canines. What it would be like
to be on the dinner side of a short-faced bear. NARRATOR: The second feature was
its unusually long front legs. In modern grizzly
bears, the front legs are shorter than
those at the rear, allowing it to reach speeds
of up to 35 miles per hour for a short distance. But in the mega bear,
both front and rear legs were of equal lengths. This special adaptation
may have allowed this bear to reach speeds in excess
of 45 miles per hour and run for much
greater distance. BLAINE SCHUBERT: They moved with
their front legs more oriented inward, instead of like this,
like we see in bears today. And that would have given
them a more efficient gait. NARRATOR: We now know that its
long legs made it a monster apex predator, a mammal
that could run down its prey at long distances,
particularly bison. LARRY D. MARTIN: With its long
legs and huge size, which meant a very long stride, it could
probably run pretty fast and for quite a while. So it had some chance of
overtaking better runners, like bison would be the obvious. Probably the prey of
choice for this animal. NARRATOR: Soon, the raw
power of the mega bear would become evident. As scientists continued
to investigate, they realized that this
animal was so massive, it even hunted and
killed giant mammoths. CHRISTOPHER SHAW: In
Utah, there was a mammoth found-- a mammoth skeleton
found-- that had scratch marks on some of the bones
that were the size and could have been done by the
canines of a short-faced bear. And short-faced
bear remains were found alongside this mammoth. So there is evidence
that these animals were eating other animals. BLAINE SCHUBERT: This is
the calcaneus, or heel bone, of a mammoth from Saltville,
Virginia, the same site where we have recovered giant
short-faced bear remains. If we look at it
from this angle, we can see this cut where this
large canine would have gone through this bone. These are very dense bones, not
a soft area of the skeleton. And I can't think
of anything else, besides a giant short-faced
bear, that could have caused something like this. NARRATOR: In fact, the mega
bear's hunting territory is stunning. This bear was everywhere. BLAINE SCHUBERT: The
geographical distribution of giant short-faced bears
is across North America, from Alaska all the way down
into Mexico, and from coast to coast. The only place that
they were missing, until recently, was down
in the very Southeast. Now, we're finding
that they were there. They've got some
records from Florida, and we've got some other records
from the extreme Southeast. So they were all over the place. [bear growling] NARRATOR: Even more evidence
of the mega bear's range was unearthed in
California's La Brea Tar Pits, one of the richest
prehistoric traps in North America. CHRISTOPHER SHAW: Rancho La
Brea is a unique situation, where we have oil that has
come up through the ground onto the surface and filled
small cavities in the surface of the ground and set up a trap
where animals would come in, get entrapped in the soil,
muck, with the asphalt-- very sticky. Would end up dying
there, decaying there, and the bones being
preserved by the oil itself. [bear roaring] NARRATOR: Since the discovery
of the La Brea death trap, paleontologists have removed
cataloged over 1 million bones, representing over 230
different species of animals. The majority of these
bones belong to herbivores, but among them were the
bones of the mega bear. GEORGE BLASING: The discovery
of a short-faced bear skeleton in the La Brea Tar Pits
is pretty important, because it's one more
piece of evidence to show how far these bears roamed. And wherever they
went, they took up the role as top predator. NARRATOR: We now
know that Arctodus is employed two lethal weapons. First and foremost were
its massive paws, embedded with grim reaper-like claws. LARRY D. MARTIN: The most
powerful weapon in any bear's arsenal is his front paws. They have very powerful
upper body strength. They have huge claws. If they swing those
upper paws, they're going to do a lot of damage
to anything they hit. NARRATOR: Its paws were the
size of a catcher's mitt, and its claws were
eight inches long. One swipe could be enough to
take the head off a grown man. GEORGE BLASING: Looking
at the claws of this bear, they're designed
for slashing meat. Very deep injuries, too. When he would grab an
opponent or potential prey, he could use those claws to
inflict some pretty dangerous stuff. You could cut between
the ribs of an animal and literally reach some
of the internal organs. Their fingernail was longer
than a human's finger. These guys were enormous,
and they're powerful, and they're designed for
grabbing you and ripping you. NARRATOR: This mega
bear's second weapon was its bone-crushing teeth. They were even more powerful
than that of its modern day relative-- the grizzly bear. GEORGE BLASING: Grizzly bears
have a bite force of over 1,200 pounds per square inch. But the more powerful jaws
of the short-faced bear gives it a bite force of over
2,000 pounds per square inch. It had four big canine teeth
up front and several smaller meat-slicing teeth in the back. This tooth configuration made
this bear one of the most formidable predators on Earth. And once it clamped down
with those jaws and teeth, no prey or rival stood much
of a chance against it. NARRATOR: Oversized
teeth, sharp claws, speed, and its gargantuan
size led experts first believe that this was a
predator with few adversaries. CHRISTOPHER SHAW: First
of all, I don't think that any sane animal
would try to engage with this huge short-faced bear. In fact, it probably was
the bully of the plains. So it no doubt
would have been very intimidating for other
carnivores to come across. If, in fact, another carnivore
would come into the scene, I would hope that that
carnivore had friends with it. NARRATOR: By studying
its skeletal design and comparing it to
the grizzly bear, experts now believe the Arctodus
would use its sheer size to stun its victim. BLAINE SCHUBERT: Go straight
in, and these bears, being extremely
large size, are going to have this tremendous impact. Rear up on the hind legs. Show how big they are, which
really magnifies the size. Spread out those front paws,
and open that big mouth. Show those big teeth. I think that would scare
almost anything away. [bear roaring] GEORGE BLASING: Even though
he's a massive animal, he can still sustain injury. So the first thing
you want to do is you want to chase away
your potential rival. But if that doesn't work,
then you go to step two. NARRATOR: Scientists determined
that the bear, using all 2,500 pounds, was particularly
well adapted to attack in close quarters. BLAINE SCHUBERT: These
short-faced bears would have been well
adapted for close combat. And so at close distance,
these exceptionally long arms, with the big claws, would have
been really efficient tools for knocking way
other predators. NARRATOR: But by standing
on its hind legs, the mega bear would reveal
one vulnerable spot-- its soft underbelly. LARRY D. MARTIN: If you tried
to attack the bear when it's in that position,
then it's forepaws are in perfect position
to take a swipe at you. And if you come in
too close, then you are going to become a
participant in the famous bear hug, which is not also going to
have a happy ending, especially because then it can reach down
and bite you at that time, too. NARRATOR: The mega
bear could have pulled a door off
a car with ease or crushed a steel
drum like a soda can. But in the caves, a second
super-sized Ice Age monster was found, and it would
change everything we thought we knew about the Ice Age. [lion roaring] [music playing] The discovery of Natural
Trap Cave in Wyoming reveals more than
40,000 fossils. Among them, the
skeleton of a mega bear, call the God Bear by some
for its awesome power. But scientists found something
else in the cave, something that was just as menacing-- a predator of
gigantic proportions. [lion roaring] The mega lion. LARRY D. MARTIN: They are,
in fact, the largest cats that ever lived. They are bigger than
any other fossil cat. So what it means is that
you're dealing with a lion that probably weighs
700 or 800 pounds. NARRATOR: In addition to
weighing more than 700 pounds, the mega lion stood five
feet tall with a body length of 11 and 1/2 feet. With those dimensions,
the mega lion dwarfed its modern cousins. It was bigger than a
prehistoric raptor. The first thing that
surprised paleontologists was its razor sharp claws. [roaring] GEORGE BLASING: The mega lion
has five retractable claws on each foot. They're kept out of harm's
way within these protective sheathes. But when he needs to
use them, the mega line would swing them into action
like switchblade knives and could slice a prey. They could cut through
flesh like a hot knife through butter. NARRATOR: The second weapon was
its powerful teeth and jaws. While a modern lion has a
bite force of over 900 pounds, this lion had a bite force
of over 1,800 pounds. Twice the cat, twice the
muscle, twice the bite. CHRISTOPHER SHAW: As with
most modern large cats, their teeth and jaws and very
strong musculature in the skull to suffocate or snap the
neck of the prey animals. NARRATOR: Equipped with
20 retractable claws and a mouthful of
bone-crushing teeth, they were major predators. But paleontologists
discovered something else-- a weakness. GEORGE BLASING: These are
not long-distance runners. They're really better
designed for chasing prey over a short distance. Their legs, although
relatively long, are not designed for
a long-distance chase. They're ambush hunters. This makes hunting for the
mega lion nearly impossible. Without heavy cover
to hide his body, he's unable to get close
enough to ambush his prey. His weakness is his
size and his inability to run down faster prey. NARRATOR: Two apex predators,
both occupying the same space, but why? Is it possible that they
live during different eras? CHRISTOPHER SHAW: We find both
lions and short-faced bears at Rancho La Brea
and other sites around the North
American continent that indicate that, at
least at times, they shared the same territory. [roaring] GEORGE BLASING: The discovery
of both lion and bear in the La Brea Tar Pits proves,
without any doubt, that these two predators
lived at the same time, in the same place. And as added proof, the bones
of both have been carbon dated, and this proves that
they lived together. NARRATOR: The trap
cave was likely located on a migration trail,
a place where both beasts would have hunted. LARRY D. MARTIN: It's the site
where, for the last 100,000 years, animals have
been simply dropping in. And so many of them have
dropped in that we've excavated about
5% of the deposit and gotten over 40,000 bones. And amongst the bones, we've
gotten complete skeletons of the American lion and
the short-faced bear. NARRATOR: But knowing that these
two gigantic animals hunted in the same terrain only
deepens the mystery. It's extraordinarily rare
for two apex predators to hunt in the same territory. Why would these two
predators be together? Then, another clue--
paleontologists went back 10,000 years and
looked at the Earth that had just come out of an Ice Age. What they found was
a world in turmoil. GEORGE BLASING: We can look at
the geological record of Earth at that time and see that
there were dramatic climate changes taking place. One of the most amazing
pieces of evidence was found in solid rock. It shows that huge glaciers
had been slowly moving southward for
thousands of years, but then receded at
an alarming rate. This is pretty clear evidence
that the environment was not only changing, it was
changing very rapidly. NARRATOR: The end
of the Ice Age saw a world that was melting away. Plants and animals hopelessly
struggled to survive. The disruption triggered
a massive food shortage. [bear growling] CHRISTOPHER SHAW: There
was more competition for the available resources. This would tend to bring
together big carnivores, because if you are lacking
a lot of resources, there is going to be more
stealing of carcasses and more confrontational
type things going on between the large lions
and bears and carnivores that depend on these big herbivores
for their daily food. GEORGE BLASING: In order
to understand the range of the bear and lion,
paleontologist actually gather evidence from a variety
of different locations. They look for fossils, and
they discover that both bear and lion bones are
found together as far north as Alaska,
as far east as Florida, and, really, as far
south as South America. So by comparing all
these areas, they're able to figure out that these
two predators were living together at the same time
and, therefore, competing for the same food source. NARRATOR: The mega bear
had a hunting range of up to 200 square miles. Only a severe food shortage
would have pushed him to invade another predator's territory. GEORGE BLASING: When two giant
predators like the mega lion and short-faced bear
inhabit the same territory, they would most certainly
fight for dominance. Each animal would
try to kill the other to remove the competition. CHRISTOPHER SHAW:
Carnivores will often protect their territory
and their range, just because they
don't like each other. Not because they're hungry. It's just that you're
in my territory. You're not welcome here. I'm going to kill you. NARRATOR: However,
there was a hitch. When investigators studied the
bones of the lion and bear, there were no bite marks. But experts believe that
actually supports the theory that they fought to
eliminate competition. GEORGE BLASING: That's why
we don't find bite marks on the bones of either
of these animals. When they fought, they
fought to kill the other guy, not to eat him. Bite marks on bones
usually happen after the meat has been removed
and the bones are exposed. But if you're not
eating the meat, then you're not
exposing the bones. And therefore, you don't
leave bite marks behind. NARRATOR: As the
ice caps melted, temperatures began to warm. Plant life that had
adapted to colder climates died on a large scale. The result was a mass migration
of the herbivores that consumed them. With fewer plant-eaters
to hunt, predators were also pushed to the edge. [roaring] Usually, even the
toughest predators will stick to
their own territory to avoid risky clashes
with other meat-eaters. But when the food gets
scarce, caution is abandoned. [roaring] At the end of the Ice Age, the
mega lion and the mega bear were pushed to
desperate measures that the world had
not seen before and would never see again. [bear roaring] [music playing] The grizzly bear of today
has sharp teeth in front to tear meat and flat teeth
in the back to eat vegetation. The mega bear has
almost all sharp teeth, attesting to its endless
appetite for prey. The mega lion had the
same number of teeth as the African lion, but
they were over 25% larger. These two apex
predators dominated North America like no mammals
have ever ruled it before. BLAINE SCHUBERT: If we
look at the strengths of a short-faced bear for
a comparison to the lion or a comparison to modern
bears, they were very different. They were really long-legged. Particularly, their
front legs were long. GEORGE BLASING: The
sheer size of this bear gives it a huge advantage
over the lion when it comes to muscle mass. These are remarkably powerful
animals, and their legs, arms, and body are loaded
and packed in muscle. NARRATOR: The bear
was strong enough to have actually lifted
a full-grown bison off the ground. LARRY D. MARTIN: Well, I think
the first thing that we should realize is that we're looking
at the epitome of these two animals. The American lion is arguably
the largest and most powerful feline that ever lived. And the short-faced
bear is certainly the largest and
most powerful bear that we have any evidence for. In fact, the short-faced
bear is probably the largest and most
powerful mammalian carnivore that we have. And as such, even though this
would be one heckish powerful lion, this bear would be so
much more powerful that I really think it could skin the lion. NARRATOR: The mega lion was
smarter than today's house cat. It knew how to use its speed
to outmaneuver its prey. With lightning fast
jabs and assaults, it moved with power and purpose. The short-faced bear was
not as strategically minded. Its plan of attack was
limited to a headlong rush. [bear roaring] GEORGE BLASING: The bear
is actually pretty fast. It's got those elongated
legs, because it's designed to run over a long distance. So speed-wise, it may not
have been as fast as the lion, but it certainly could
run much greater distances than the lion. The lion, on the
other hand, is a cat, and cats are very quick, very
agile, very fast animals. BLAINE SCHUBERT: Cats
are basically designed as hunt-and-kill predators. They are carnivores. That's what they do as
carnivores, is they chase things down and kill them. These short-faced bears, on
the other hand, what it looks like they were doing
is that they were well adapted to move long distances,
not necessarily to chase things down and kill them, or at least
not in the way that cats do. NARRATOR: Once the lion
locked on to its prey, it was oblivious
to everything else. It brought a killer
focus to the hunt. CHRISTOPHER SHAW: The lion
has retractable claws, so they can protect those
while they're just running. They can invoke those claws
when they're struggling with animals, and that
can pierce the skin with those claws. The short-faced bear did
not have the retraction that the lion has. They're basically
very long claws, and they could probably
rake other animals and cause serious
injury that way. BLAINE SCHUBERT: When we
compare it to the cats of today, the lion is very large, but
the lions of the Pleistocene were a little larger-- large teeth, large
shearing teeth. When we compare
that to the bear, the musculature on the
top of their head tells us they had a powerful bite. The lower jaw
musculature tells us they had a very powerful bite. The wear patterns on the teeth
tell us that they were actually very powerful bites. What advantage it
had in its weaponry was these really long
arms that it had. And so it could reach
out and smack things with those long arms
if it needed to. NARRATOR: The mega lion had two
major weapons in its arsenal. The first were its 20
razor-sharp retractable claws. When not in use,
the claws remained hidden within their sheath. And if the claws don't
get you, the jaws will. [lion snarling] With its massive canine teeth
and 800 pound bite force behind them, this cat
could take on any rival. GEORGE BLASING: Although
these mammals were separated by millions of years
from the dinosaurs, they still played
the same basic roles. Looking at the mega lion,
it's easy to compare it to a Nanotyrannus. Neither were overly
large predators, but they were equipped with the
weapons and musculature that allowed them to take on prey
much larger than themselves. Now, looking at the bear,
its dinosaurian counterpart would be Tyrannosaurus. Like T-Rex, the bear could
take on anything it wanted. It had little to fear from
anything other than a bigger bear. And if it didn't feel like
catching its own prey, it could use its tremendous
size and massive power to simply take food away
from another predator. [lion snarling] NARRATOR: The mega
bear was 12 feet tall and weighed 2,500 pounds. Its paws were the
size of a human head, and its claws were
eight inches long. And to back up that weapon
was its bone-crushing teeth and vice-like jaws. It was a one-two punch
that few survived. [bear roaring] BLAINE SCHUBERT: Even if it's
not a chase-down-and-kill predator, it's not something
that you would want to mess with. Because it's way
up off the ground. It has a very large appearance--
very large head, very large musculature, very
powerful looking. And so that threat alone
would scare most things off. NARRATOR: Based on studying
how modern-day lions attack, the mega lion is known to have
been an aggressive predator who was smart enough to
strike first in a fight. [bear roaring] CHRISTOPHER SHAW: The
body of any species is used in one unit. So we have a situation
with the lion, for instance, that has
the claws and the jaws. And they probably
approached their prey items much like big cats do today. They basically had to run up
and use their jaws probably in a similar way to
dispatch their prey, either by biting on the
muscle or the neck or maybe going for some
other part of the body. GEORGE BLASING: The bear is
one of the few predators that will take on another predator. Fighting with your
prey is one thing. Fighting with another predator
is something totally different. The bear may have
come upon other kills and chased away the attacker. In other words, it spots
something killing prey. It waits till it kills it, and
then it moves in and chases it away. He may have been the
bully of the plains. So his role is to
fight predators more often than the lion does. NARRATOR: The bear,
with its thick coat, is greatly affected by the
unprecedented global warming. GEORGE BLASING: The
geological evidence shows us that the Earth was experiencing
some dramatic climate changes. So some things from the
past are really clear to us. But when it comes
to describing what a confrontation between
two individual creatures like the bear and
lion would have been, we have to study and
look at the behaviors of their modern counterparts
so we can project what we think would have occurred. We use all of the scientific
facts that are available to us, as well as modern
animal behaviors, to help us create a
plausible, realistic fight. [lion roaring] NARRATOR: Normally, the
lion would hunt at night to help it ambush its
prey and to save energy. Hunger has pushed it to hunt
day, when the mega bear is awake and hunting, as well. It is the rising heat
that pushes these two ferocious creatures to extreme
behavior, the likes of which would reverberate
through the centuries. [roaring] You are about to see
a graphic scenario of a violent prehistoric battle. Viewer discretion is advised. [music playing] Soaring temperatures top
90 degrees on the plains. Extinction is enveloping Earth. Few large plant-eaters are left. GEORGE BLASING: We're coming
to the end of the Pleistocene, the end of the Ice Age. The environments are
changing, and the animals are pretty stressed. The lion is having a difficult
time finding enough food to keep him alive. He's been very lucky that a
bison wandered in close enough for him to attack,
and he made a kill. Vital for the lion, because
the lion's literally at the end of his rope. NARRATOR: The lion is
primarily an ambush hunter. Its great size would seem
to make it hard to hide, but it is perfectly suited
for its environment. Its coloring matches the brush. It moves silently on
padded feet and is able to remain completely
motionless for hours. When it strikes, it
is lightning quick. The mega bear would
smell its prey first. Then, once he had
it in sight, he would wait for it to
enter striking distance. GEORGE BLASING: The bear's
taking advantage of the wind. It's coming from down wind. The lion doesn't
pick up his scent. He has no idea
he's being stalked. The bear is moving up slowly,
using trees to help break up his silhouette. NARRATOR: The bear moves
in short bursts of speed. He was not built for
long springs in the heat. Short, controlled
bursts also allow him to assess the situation
to make sure he's not headed into an ambush. His first option is to scare
a rival predator away and take its prey. GEORGE BLASING: The lion
has to have this meal. His life depends on it. The bear comes bursting out
of a grove of trees, roaring at the top of his
lungs, at a full gallop faster than a modern horse. The lion turns to
face this attack. The bear expects the lion to
run, but the lion doesn't. The lion stands his ground. NARRATOR: Bears in our own
time are designed to hibernate. In the Ice Age, there were
no seasonal weather changes. The mega bear ate the same
amount year round, giving it an insatiable need to hunt. GEORGE BLASING: It
towers over the lion. This bear is nearly
11 and 1/2 feet tall. He's a massive, massive animal,
and he's very intimidating. The lion, normally this would
be enough for him to turn tail and run, but he can't. He cannot afford
to leave this prey. NARRATOR: The end of
the Ice Age set off a major movement of species. Cold weather animals moved
north, while smaller, swifter animals that were more
difficult to hunt replaced them. When the bear faced
another predator, he spread his arms wide to look
as intimidating as possible, but this exposed
his only weakness-- his unprotected stomach. GEORGE BLASING: The lion
was unable to take advantage of that soft underbelly. All he can do is
clamp those huge jaws on the back of the bear. But the bear's body
mass is so thick and that fat layer
is so immense, it doesn't do a lot of damage. It hurts, but it certainly
doesn't do a lot of damage to the bear. The bear is able to shake
the lion off and regain its footing. NARRATOR: He has a thick layer
of fat to combat the cold. That also makes him
harder to hold on to. GEORGE BLASING: The
lion takes the next step and makes a mock charge, hoping
that the bear will stand again on its hind legs, because
the lion intent is to go in this time
and try to grab the bear by the underbelly. But the bear doesn't stand up. The bear simply
rears back and begins to shift his center of gravity
to launch his own attack. This time, the bear comes
full, and he doesn't stop. NARRATOR: When it
mounts a bear rush, the mega bear
moves at top speed. But it remains fully balanced,
using the eight-inch claws on its feet to dig into the
ground and provide traction. It is perfectly poised
to use its claws with extreme dexterity. [music playing] GEORGE BLASING: He
can swing those paws like a professional baseball
player can swing a bat. And when he hits you,
he's going to hit you with an incredible
amount of force. It's not just the claws. It's the shear force
of the swing that's going to cause the damage. NARRATOR: A mega lion's
skull is much thicker than the modern lion. It could absorb a blow
from a shovel to the head and quickly recover. Its strategy when
facing a fellow predator was to circle until it could
find where it was vulnerable. Once it identified
its target, it would lunge and fake to maneuver
its opponent into exposing its weak spot. GEORGE BLASING: The
lion comes forward with a couple of mock charges,
and the bear has a tendency to want to stand
on those hind legs, and that's what the lion wants. But the bear doesn't
stand up all the way, and that makes the
lion's attack useless. The bear continues to do
his mock charges in hopes that if that lion
will just turn to run, the bear will be able to bypass
those weapons, those teeth and those claws. NARRATOR: With the
temperature rising, the mega lion would ultimately
be replaced by the much smaller cougar and leopard. It simply took too much
energy for the mega lion to feed itself in
the greater heat. GEORGE BLASING: He's
running out of energy and knows that
it's now or never. He lunges forward, arms
out in front of him, and attacks the
face of the bear. This move brings the mega
lion directly into the range of those powerful
teeth and jaws, and the short-faced bear uses
them to his full advantage. [roaring] NARRATOR: The mega bear will
actually use wrestling moves in a fight, including
trying to pin an opponent. This will render it harmless
with the lowest risk of injury. GEORGE BLASING: He grabs the
mega lion by the midsection, crunches down, cracking
and breaking ribs, and then rips back. The mega lion roars in pain
and then slumps to the ground. Figuring that the lion is
unable to continue the fight, the short-faced bear turns
his attention to the bison and begins to feed. NARRATOR: Both of these mammals
needed huge amounts of food to survive. The mega bear could consume up
to 30 pounds of meat at a time. But would this meal be his last? [lion snarling] The Ice Age has come to
an end, and global warming has thrown the ecosystem of
North America into utter chaos. Animals were forced to
adapt, migrate, or die. Mass migration
brought new diseases that indigenous creatures
had no resistance to. With the food supply dwindling,
even dominant predators could find themselves
fighting for prey. Bison were one of the few
herbivores that actually thrived in the
warmer temperatures. The grasslands
expanded in the heat, offering them a
larger food supply. GEORGE BLASING: The
bear's attention is clearly on the bison. Its mind is no longer
focused on the fight. Although the lion is down,
he's certainly not out. NARRATOR: The mega lion is most
comfortable hunting at night. Like all cats, his large eyes
gave him superior night vision. That does not help him now. [roaring] GEORGE BLASING: The only
hope the lion has is to crush the windpipe of the bear. If he can bite with enough force
to penetrate that thick hide of the bear, he'll succeed
in winning the day. NARRATOR: The lion's long
tail gives him added agility. GEORGE BLASING: Before the lion
can reach the bear's throat, the bear's able to hold off
the attacker with its arms. The lion tries in vain
to grab the throat, but the bear is
just too powerful. NARRATOR: The Ice Age
favoring power over speed. Larger animals were
better insulated. GEORGE BLASING: The lion
is in excruciating pain from the force of the bear's
throw, but he won't give up. Because of the lack
of available food, his survival instincts won't
allow him to turn tail and run, even though it seems like
he's fighting a losing battle. He turns to face the bear
and bellows a huge roar to send a clear message-- this fight is to the death. [bear roars] NARRATOR: The bear's roar would
seem as loud as an oncoming train. GEORGE BLASING: The
lion scores a direct hit to the face of the bear. Temporarily blinded
and disoriented, the bear loses its footing
and crashes to the ground. This gives the lion the opening
that it's been waiting for. NARRATOR: The lion's
senses are keen-- even its whiskers, which
could pick up vibrations. It can sense animals as small
as a mouse in pitch darkness. GEORGE BLASING: The
lion is desperate, and the only way it can win
is to get to the throat. With the last
remaining strength, he lunges towards the bear. The force of the impact
knocks the bear backwards, and the lion grabs the throat. NARRATOR: The lion needed
almost 40 pounds of meat a day to survive. Without it, the mega lion
would quickly weaken. [roaring] GEORGE BLASING: The bear is
able to regain his footing and towers over its rival. It throws the 750-pound mega
lion with little effort. Unfortunately for
the lion, the bear happens to throw it in
the direction of the cave. NARRATOR: The cave is
over 85 feet deep-- a deadly drop. GEORGE BLASING: It's a
sheer drop to the bottom that nothing can survive. The herbivore bones that
were found in the cave show no signs of predation. So this tells us
that nothing that went into that cave
lived to eat the bodies of the other victims. NARRATOR: Although the cave
meant certain death to animals, it would also yield
groundbreaking benefits to paleontologists. GEORGE BLASING: The
great thing about a cave is that it helps
preserve the evidence, because the bones aren't exposed
to the normal elements that can erode the facts
and alter the clues. But that's of little
comfort to the animals who happen to fall into it. NARRATOR: Having claimed
the life of the mega lion, Natural Trap Cave would
continue to accumulate thousands of other victims over
the next 10,000 years. [roaring] CHRISTOPHER SHAW: The mega
lion is not the only victim to fall prey to the trap. As the environments
continue to get worse, even the apex predator,
like the short-faced bear, would be forced to take
advantage of any food source it could find. And like the lion, it
would have been lured into the cave with
the promise of meat, but would have
found death waiting at the bottom of the cave. [lion snarling] NARRATOR: Giant predators
like the mega lion and short-faced bear
would eventually be unable to sustain themselves
in the warmer climates, with the mega bear being
replaced by the smaller brown bear and grizzly. But they remain some
of the largest and most ferocious mammals ever
to walk the earth. The trap cave still holds
thousands of individual bones, and many more that
have yet to be dug up. It's one of the richest
fossil finds in North America and one of the greatest sources
of mammal fossils in the world. Next week on
"Jurassic Fight Club," it is one of the worst
scenes of mass slaughter in the prehistoric world. An apex predator, a
panicked stampede, and a natural disaster all
collided in the perfect storm. For the first time, witness
how it all unfolded, blow by blow, with Mother
Nature as the final killer.
