This is Science Friday, I'm Flora Lichtman, filling in for Ira this week.

For the next hour, it's old things considered.

We're going way back in time to meet ancient creatures, think Megalodon and T-Rex, and

hear what life was like in the really olden days.

And we'll revisit some of the world's deadliest, scariest catastrophes, like the eruption

of Mount Vesuvius, and try to survive them, using science, of course.

But first, let's take a trip to Southern California, about 15,000 years ago.

It was the ice age in saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths, and dire wolves prowled the landscape

until they didn't.

And for a year, scientists have been trying to answer the question, why did these animals

go extinct?

A study offers new clues and suggests that wildfires might have been the nail in these

critters' coffins.

Joining me are two authors on this study, Dr. Emily Lindsay, paleoecologist, curator

and excavation site director at the LeBraya Tarpits and Museum, and Dr. Reagan Dunn, paleo

botanist and curator also at the LeBraya Tarpits and Museum in LA.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having us.

Hello, Fora.

Thank you.

Okay.

...