Chapter 2

The chapter begins on the topic of extinction and how its a topic that even young children know. Kolbert uses her own children as an example, stating that even they know about dinosaurs and how they all died off. Back then, the topic of extinction wasn't even considered. For example, Aristotle wrote a book on the History of Animals without even considering that some animals are extinct. Even today, some still don't believe in the topic of extinction. The idea of extinction was first come up by Georges Cuvier during revolutionary France. Cuvier studied the bones of the Mammut americanum, or the American mastodon. His concept of extinction were criticized during his time but now he is seen as an important figure in the history of science. It’s believed that Europeans first found the bones of the American mastodon in upstate New York and by 1705 they were sent out to London. They were discovered by Charles le Moyne Heel, the second Baron de Longueuil, as he was traveling Ohio. His men found a large piece of bone sticking out from the muck. The bone was three and a half feet long, had a tusk, and even some teeth. He then sent them to France to be shown to King Louis XV, who then put them in a museum. Scientists were perplexed by these bones and began to try to figure out its origins. Cuvier decided to try and solve the mystery, He started looking into elephants. He noticed the different characteristics between elephants in Africa to those in Asia. He also proved the theory of the bones originating from Russia to be wrong since they did not match any of the characteristics of elephants in Siberia. He finally concluded that the bones were from a lost species. The question that he had was, “ All these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to prove to me the existence of a world previous to ours (...) but what was this primitive Earth? And what Revolution was able to wipe it out?” (pg 30). Curiver proved the existence of animals that went extinct. This relates to the process of science. Cuirver was criticized by his ideas of extinction, this just shows how science is a process. The way we understand the world is constantly changing. For example, Aristotle, one of the best scientists in the past, didn't even grasp the idea of extinction. Science and the way we understand it is constantly changing.