History Series / WildNewWorld

** A major theme throughout the series is how Pleistocene America housed many animals that would nowadays seem very out of place; such as camels, llamas, lions, cheetahs, saiga antelopes, tapirs, zebra-like horses, and so on. The penultimate episode highlights it the most and is appropriately titled “American Serengeti”. [[{{Irony}} Ironically]], quite a few of those species, such as horses, camelids, tapirs, and jaguars actually evolved in North America]].

** A major theme throughout the series is how Pleistocene America housed many animals that would nowadays seem very out of place; such as camels, llamas, lions, cheetahs, saiga antelopes, tapirs, zebra-like horses, and so on. The penultimate episode highlights it the most and is appropriately titled “American Serengeti”.

* OutOfFocus: [[PantheraAwesome While the series has a strong focus on the big cats that used to roam ice age America]], the American cheetah is given the least attention, only appearing for one scene in “American Serengeti” where it's shown chasing pronghorns (all done via stock footage) and it doesn’t even get a cameo during the short story at the end. The same episode also features Natural Trap Cave but never brings up how ''Miracinonyx'' is one of the most common finds there.

* TheArtifact: Several examples of "evolutionary anachronisms" are shown in the series, relics from Pleistocene ecosystems that no longer exist. For example, the pronghorns' incredible speed evolved to help them evade the American cheetah (''Miracinonyx trumani''), but after the cheetah’s extinction, the pronghorn’s capacity to run at over 80 km/h no longer serves a function, as it far exceeds the speed of extant sympatric predators like wolves and coyotes. Likewise, the osage orange, now restricted to parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, used to be far more widespread during the ice ages, with megafauna such mammoths browsing its trees and helping disperse its seeds via their feces.

* TheArtifact: Several examples of evolutionary anachronisms are shown in the series, who considered relics from the Pleistocene ecosystems. For example, the pronghorns' incredible speed evolved to help them evade the American cheetah (''Miracinonyx trumani''), but after the cheetah’s extinction, the pronghorn’s capacity to run at over 80 km/h no longer serves a function, as it far exceeds the speed of extant sympatric predators like wolves and coyotes. Likewise, the osage orange, now restricted to parts of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, used to be far more widespread during the ice ages, with megafauna such mammoths browsing its trees and helping disperse its seeds via their feces.

* MammothsMeanIceAge: Unsurprisingly, mammoths are a major focus in this series, with “Land of the Mammoth” featuring the iconic woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') and “Canyonlands” and “American Serengeti” featuring the larger but less hairy Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi''), who is also very much the [[SeriesMascot series’ mascot]]. The mammoths' distant cousin, the mastodon (''Mammut'') is also prominently featured, appearing in “Ice Age Oasis” and being the main elephant in “Edge of the Ice”, the latter of which also features the two mammoth species in smaller roles.

** “Ice Age Oasis” ends with a jaguar killing a Glyptotherium by biting through its skull, which is based on a specimen with twin holes punctured into its skull. [[note]] [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory Though said specimen was a juvenile, came from Arizona and not Florida, and the killer is thought to have been a saber-toothed cat]]. [[/note]]

** “American Serengeti” highlights the Natural Trap Cave, a famous fossil site in Wyoming where countless ice age animals fell down a 4,560-foot cavern, including short-faced bears. The story at the end shows a bison falling to its death during a stampede and subsequently, the short-faced bear that has been searching for a meal jumps down after the carcass, surviving the fall but trapping itself in the process. The same episode also incorporates the famous fossils of two bull Columbian mammoths who died with their tusks locked together, as well as the Hot Springs mammoth site, where many individuals (namely young males) got trapped in a slippery spring-fed pond while trying to drink.

* RealIsBrown: The CGI animals have plain-looking uniform colorations. The one exception is the scimitar cat, which has grayish fur and is covered in dark spots.

* PantheraAwesome: ''Smilodon'', ''Homotherium'', ''Miracinonyx'', cave lions, American lions, and the ice age jaguar(''Panthera onca augusta'') all appear in this series, the last of which kills a ''glyptodont'' by biting through its skull!. There's also the still-living cougar, who was OvershadowedByAwesome back then.

* BearsAreBadNews: The giant short-faced bear (''Arctodus simus''), one of the largest mammalian land carnivores ever, appears in two episodes.

* MisplacedWildlife: A major theme throughout the series is how Pleistocene America housed many animals that would nowadays seem very out of place; such as camels, llamas, lions, cheetahs, saiga antelopes, tapirs, zebra-like horses, and so on. The penultimate episode highlights it the most and is appropriately titled “American Serengeti”.

* BearsAreBadNews: The giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), one of the largest mammalian land carnivores ever, appears in two episodes.

* SnowySabertooths: Averted with ''Smilodon fatalis'', who shows up in “Canyonlands” (set in the Grand Canyon) and “Ice Age Oasis” (set in Florida) while its steppe-dwelling cousin, the scimitar cat (''Homotherium serum'') shows up in “Edge of the Ice” (set in Washington, then at the edge of Laurentide Ice Sheet).

* ArmorIsUseless: ''Glyptotherium'' is heavily armored but the jaguar still manages to kill it by biting through its skull. [[note]] Jaguar jaws are strong enough to bite through turtle shells and the armored hide of crocodiles. [[/note]].

* MightyGlacier: The ground sloth ''Eremotherium'' is slow-moving but it's also as big as a mastodon (we see them side by side for comparison) and is armed with formidable claws, so it's safe from even the fiercest predators like sabretooths. The same is true for fellow xenarthran, the heavily armored ''Glyptotherium'' (though a jaguar still manages to kill it).

* MightyGlacier: The ground sloth ''Eremotherium'' is slow-moving but it's also as big as a mastodon and has fearsome claws, so its safe from even the fiercest predators like sabretooths.

* PantheraAwesome: ''Smilodon'', ''Homotherium'', ''Miracinonyx'', cave lions, American lions, and the ice age jaguar(''Panthera onca augusta'') all appear in this series, the last of which kills a ''glyptodont'' by biting through its skull!. There's also the still-living cougar, who was OvershadowedByAwesome back then.

* SnowySabretooth: Averted with ''Smilodon fatalis'', who shows up in “Canyonlands” (set in the Grand Canyon) and “Ice Age Oasis” (set in Florida) while its steppe-dwelling cousin, the scimitar cat (''Homotherium serum'') shows up in “Edge of the Ice” (set in Washington, then at the edge of Laurentide Ice Sheet).
** PantheraAwesome: ''Smilodon'', ''Homotherium'', ''Miracinonyx'', cave lions, American lions, and the ice age jaguar(''Panthera onca augusta'') all appear in this series, the last of which kills a ''glyptodont'' by biting through its skull!.

!!Tropes used in ''Wild New World'':

!!Tropes used in ''Wild New World'':
* PortrayedByDifferentSpecies: Since Pleistocene America had many species that have close relatives in Africa, South America, and other parts of the world, the show uses this trope frequently. Examples include:
** The cave lion (''Panthera spelaea'') and American lion (''Panthera atrox'') are played by (of course) African lions (''Panthera leo'').
** The Western camel (''Camelops hesternus'') is played by dromedaries (''Camelus dromedarius'').
** The American cheetah (''Miracinonyx trumani'') is played by the modern cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'').
** The steppe bison (''Bison priscus'') and ancient bison (''Bison antiquus'') are played by the American bison (''Bison bison''), even though steppe bison had notably longer horns (which are shown in the recreated “Blue Babe” mummy).
** The extinct llama ''Hemiauchenia'' is played by guanacos (''Lama guanicoe'').
** The stilt-legged horse (''Haringtonhippus''/''Equus francisci'') is played by onagers (''Equus hemionus'') and the Hagerman horse (''Plesippus''/''Equus simplicidens'') is played by Grevy zebras (''Equus grevyi'') and plains zebras (''Equus quagga''), depending on the scene.

!!Tropes used in ''Wild New World'':

''Wild New World'' (also known as ''Prehistoric America'') is a six-part [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] documentary from 2002 that focuses on the wildlife of ice age North America 13,000 years ago, with each episode centering on the fauna of a particular part of the continent that wasn’t covered in ice sheets, from the frigid tundra of Alaska (then part of Beringia) to the tropics of Florida. The series known for its distinct transitions, which show the present-day melting away to become the past and prehistoric animals walking through modern cities.

While some beasts such as mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, and ground sloths are brought to life via CGI, many others are [[PortrayedByDifferentSpecies played by live-action actors]], often by mixing and matching footage of African wildlife with that of indigenous American ones. Besides the megafauna, the series also highlights other aspects of Pleistocene America, such as the differences in climate and flora, the lowering of sea levels, natural disasters like the Missoula floods, and of course, the arrival of the first Native Americans.

Some of the CGI models for this show are repurposed in ''Series/MonstersWeMet'', and it also has a spin-off special called ''Ice Age Death Trap'', which focuses on the famous La Brea Tar Pits and mostly repurposes footage from the original series.