Chapter 2 : The Mastadon's Molars (Angel Jorge)

In Chapter 2 of Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert begins by introducing extinction as a very uncontroversial topic that even a small child has knowledge about animals that were extinct millions of year ago, like the famous dinosaurs. Kolbert explains that a famous scientist named Aristotle wrote a long piece on animals without blinking twice to the fact that some animals went extinct. The idea of extinction was first proposed in the late 1800s where a naturalist named Georges Cuvier studied the Mammut americanum and deduced that they must've died out hundreds of years earlier. Cuvier was heavily criticized for his ideas on extinction but is now perceived as being a naturalist far ahead of his own time. In 1739, Charles le Mayone (the Baron de Longueuil) discovered mastodon fossils in Ohio They were then kept in a museum in France. French scientists debated what species the fossils belonged to eventually to no general agreement among the scientists. Cuvier used the fossils as sort of an inspiration to give lectures on what he called "lost creatures." He explained that the fossils of the American mastodon and the fossils of a similar creature that was found in Russia belonged to two new animal species, that have since become extinct. Finding evidence of other lost creatures among other remains, Cuvier deduced that they must have belonged to now-extinct species. He used his theory to conclude that there was a large number of species that dies out over time. Cuvier than used most of his time popularizing the idea of extinction by giving lectures and doing extensive research. He sought out more fossils to prove that the Earth was once full of now-extinct species. He winds up discovering 23 new species that were believed to be extinct. Based on his findings of current animals Cuvier concluded that it was impossible for animals to mutate or evolve over time since even the tiniest changes in an animal's body would prevent it from surviving. One of Cuvier's colleague at the Museum, Jean-Baptise Lamarck proposed that animals could slowly change their own bodies over time. Even though Cuvier determined that animals have gone extinct over time he still could not figure out what caused this to happen. Many of Cuvier's ideas have been debunked. For example, he believed that there was a mass extinction just before the beginning of recorded history, which is very untrue. However, his basic idea that species go extinct over time paved the way for future research. This relates to the APES theme of science being a process and it alters the way we look at the world. Cuvier's groundbreaking research changed the course of animalistic research for the rest of time. This brings up questions like how has Cuvier's research impacted species that are currently endangered or how many other species are left undiscovered and how would what would their discovery teach us about how to prevent another?