In chapter 2 Kolbert presents the scientific idea of extinction as something supposedly universally accepted even by children. This in part due to a naturalist named Georges Cuvier studied the fossils of an animal now known as the American mastodon, or Mammut americanum, and concluded that all such creatures must have died out in the distant past. The Mastodon remains from Ohio, as well as the remains of a similar creature that had been discovered in Russia were one of Cuvier’s important breakthroughs. It was at first believed to have been the teeth of a giant but Cuvier proposed that the two sets of remains belonged to huge, elephantine creatures; two new animal species, neither one of which had survived. Cuvier called these kinds of creatures “lost creatures.” It states “ About thirty million years ago the proboscidean line that would lead to mastodons split off from the line that would lead to mammoths and elephants. The ladder would eventually evolve its more sophisticated teeth , which are made up of enamel covered plates that have been fused into a shape a bit like a bread loaf.” (pg. 32) This shows that the chapter relates to the theme that science is a process because the theory that species never appear or disappear which was believed to be true for a long time became clear that it was flawed as more evidence of fossils were discovered revealing that they had died long ago.
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