Discovering the Mammoth

Discovering the Mammoth

The fascinating saga of solving the mystery of this ancient animal who once roamed the north countryâ€•and has captivated our collective imagination ever since.
Today, we know that a mammoth is an extinct type of elephant that was covered with long fur and lived in the north country during the ice ages. But how do you figure out what a mammoth is if you have no concept of extinction, ice ages, or fossils? Long after the last mammoth died and was no longer part of the human diet, it still played a role in human life. Cultures around the world interpreted the remains of mammoths through the lens of their own worldview and mythology.

When the ancient Greeks saw deposits of giant fossils, they knew they had discovered the battle fields where the gods had vanquished the Titans. When the Chinese discovered buried ivory, they knew they had found dragonsâ€™ teeth. But as the Age of Reason dawned, monsters and giants gave way to the scientific method. Yet the mystery of these mighty bones remained. How did Enlightenment thinkers overcome centuries of myth and misunderstanding to reconstruct an unknown animal?

The journey to unravel that puzzle begins in the 1690s with the arrival of new type of ivory on the European market bearing the exotic name "mammoth." It ends during the Napoleonic Wars with the first recovery of a frozen mammoth. The path to figuring out the mammoth was traveled by merchants, diplomats, missionaries, cranky doctors, collectors of natural wonders, Swedish POWs, Peter the Great, Ben Franklin, the inventor of hot chocolate, and even one pirate.

McKay brings together dozens of original documents and illustrations, some ignored for centuries, to show how this odd assortment of characters solved the mystery of the mammoth and, in doing so, created the science of paleontology. 8 pages of color illustrations
Country USA
Brand Pegasus Books
Manufacturer Pegasus Books
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2017-08-08
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781681774244

Country	USA
Brand	Pegasus Books
Manufacturer	Pegasus Books
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2017-08-08
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781681774244

Discovering the Mammoth

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