Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

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The work Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Billerica Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

The Resource Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

Label: Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

Title remainder: a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

Statement of responsibility: John J. McKay

Creator

McKay, John J

Author

McKay, John J

Subject

Genre

History

Language: eng

Summary: "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 dragons' 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."--Jacket flap

Cataloging source: BTCTA

Dewey number: 569.67

Illustrations

illustrations
maps
plates

Index: index present

LC call number

QE882.P8
QE882.P8

LC item number

M394 2017
M425 2017

Literary form: non fiction

Nature of contents: bibliography

Context

Context of Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

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Discovering the mammoth : a tale of giants, unicorns, ivory, and the birth of a new science

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