I haven't.' ― Granny and Diego on Precious' whereabouts. If you mean the imaginary or perhaps deceased pet that you keep searching for: no. Precious was alive and in the oceans, where the whale grew to an enormous size.įinding Granny ' Hey lady, have you seen Precious?

Īt some point in her life, a ground sloth named Granny adopted Precious as a pet, though her family didn't believe that Precious was still alive and thought her senile for mentioning Precious: indeed, Granny's family, namely her grandson Marshall, expressed that she was so crazy for talking about her 'dead pet'. Precious was alive and in the oceans, where the whale grew to an enormous size.Įarly Life ' Mom, Granny's talking about her dead pet again.' ― Marshall to his mother about Granny's pet. This has now been amended.A massive whale, Precious was the pet of a ground sloth dubbed Granny, though Granny's family thought her senile for mentioning Precious: indeed, Granny's family, namely Marshall, expressed that she was crazy for talking about her 'dead pet'. This article originally omitted palaeontologist Sarah Joomun's name from the standfirst. Sarah Joomun works at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. I hope kids who see it will go on to discover the joys of palaeontology. The best thing about the film, and the series, is that it's a great introduction to fossil study: it might not be entirely accurate, but it does give you a sense of what it was like when these mammals walked the Earth. I also doubt all these different species would have lived together in a herd – although remains of sloths, smilodons and mammoths have been found together in the La Brea tar pits near Los Angeles. The ice age took place between 100,000 and 10,000 years ago, but we see a massive whale that I'm sure dates from 12m years ago. I couldn't help trying to date the animals – and some definitely weren't around at the same time. Because their remains have been found frozen, we know exactly what woolly mammoths would have looked like, even down to hair colour. Most of the mammals featured – the smilodon, for instance – were around in the most recent ice age, and they look pretty much as we'd expect them to. That said, the film-makers have made some effort to get their facts right.

Instal Ice Age: Continental Drift