Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.

With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabatans, and enjoy a new release every week.

Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. The New World, a term that for centuries was applied to the Americas. But by the 19th century,

this idea that America was a young continent compared to Europe and Asia, when it was becoming

obsolete. The remains of great ancient creatures of terrifying beasts were starting to be unearthed.

Suddenly the reality of just how old their constant was began to dawn on Americans.

A history more ancient than anyone could ever have imagined.

A place of primordial natural beauty.

It's The Ancients on History Hit.

I'm Tristan Hughes, your host.

Today we're exploring the story of Deep Time America,

how in the 19th century people began unearthing countless fossils of ancient animals and dinosaurs

that revealed how the new world might

in fact be the oldest world of all, challenging the commonly held view of the time that

the world was in fact only 6,000 years old.

Now our guest today is Professor Caroline Winterer from Stanford University.

Caroline has recently written a new book exploring this Deep Time Revolution in America

and was wonderful to get her on the podcast.

We're going to explore everything from 4 billion-year-old rock formations in northeast Canada

to 500 million-year-old trilobites and, of course, dinosaur remains.

We'll be examining the dinosaur craze that seized America through the 19th century as great

sea beasts and dinosaur remains started to be discovered, and much more.

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