Until March 2007

Everyone has been talking about global warming lately, and for good reason: average temperatures are on the rise and climatic conditions are increasingly unstable. But did you know that technically we are still in an ice age ? In fact, over the last two million years, the earth has experienced a period characterized by cooler temperatures and the extension of the polar ice caps toward the equator. During an ice age, glacial periods alternate with interglacials, when temperatures rise somewhat. We are currently in such an interglacial phase that started about 10,000 years ago.

If this intrigues you, don't miss the exhibition Ice Age Mammals, at the Montréal Science Centre.

It's a funny bone: which animal does it belong to? My Ice Age friends and I will help you find the answer! Investigation game To pique your curiosity and stimulate your neurons, you can play a game during your visit : with pencil and chart in hand, you collect clues to solve a mystery. Game scenario It is the year 3006 and you have discovered the bones of an extinct animal , but what is it? During your visit, you will be asked questions, the answers to which will help you decode the name of the extinct species. You will also encounter characters from the animated film Ice Age throughout your investigation, and you can view excerpts from the movie at different places around the exhibition. Ready? Sharpen your pencils!

• Fossils of animals that once inhabited Northern Canada. Some are up to 4 million years old (bear, rabbit, three-toed horse), when this area experienced a milder climate; others are much younger, only 10 to 20 thousand years old, from the most recent glacial period (steppe bison, Yukon horse, giant beaver). The stars of the exhibition are a complete mastodon skeleton; a skull, tooth and piece of hair from a mammoth; and many other fossils of now extinct species that once roamed these lands. How did these animals live? What did they look like? What did they eat?
  
  
• A ton of information about the field of paleontology and fieldwork: setting up camps on the tundra in difficult weather conditions, eating and living in a tent, organizing digs, identifying fossils, etc. You can even prepare your own virtual backpack to head out on an expedition. Your guides are paleontologists Dick Harrington and Natalia Rybczynski from the Canadian Museum of Nature. These two enthusiastic experts will inspire you to learn more about their profession.

• A clever and captivating overview of one of the earth's most fascinating periods : What is an ice age? What causes an ice age? Where are we in the cycle of glaciation? Will the earth undergo more climate change, and why? Understanding the factors that affect global climates will give you a broader vision of today's climatic phenomena. Did you know that an interglacial can end quite suddenly, within a few decades? Find out more at the exhibition.