Discovering the Mammoth
(eBook)
The fascinating saga of solving the mystery of this ancient animal who once roamed the north country-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 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.
Notes
McKay, J. J. (2017). Discovering the Mammoth. [United States], Pegasus Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)McKay, John J.. 2017. Discovering the Mammoth. [United States], Pegasus Books.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)McKay, John J., Discovering the Mammoth. [United States], Pegasus Books, 2017.
MLA Citation (style guide)McKay, John J.. Discovering the Mammoth. [United States], Pegasus Books, 2017.
Hoopla Extract Information
hooplaId | 13358033 |
---|---|
title | Discovering the Mammoth |
kind | EBOOK |
price | 0.65 |
active | 1 |
pa | 0 |
profanity | 0 |
children | 0 |
demo | 0 |
rating | |
abridged | 0 |
dateLastUpdated | May 29, 2020 12:29:14 AM |
Record Information
Last File Modification Time | Nov 23, 2023 03:55:17 AM |
---|---|
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Nov 23, 2023 02:33:59 AM |
MARC Record
LEADER | 03180nam a22003735a 4500 | ||
---|---|---|---|
001 | MWT13358033 | ||
003 | MWT | ||
005 | 20231027091637.0 | ||
006 | m o d | ||
007 | cr cn||||||||| | ||
008 | 231027s2017 xxu eo 000 0 eng d | ||
020 | |a 9781681774817|q (electronic bk.) | ||
020 | |a 168177481X|q (electronic bk.) | ||
028 | 4 | 2 | |a MWT13358033 |
029 | |a https://d2snwnmzyr8jue.cloudfront.net/ssd_9781681774817_180.jpeg | ||
037 | |a 13358033|b Midwest Tape, LLC|n http://www.midwesttapes.com | ||
040 | |a Midwest|e rda | ||
099 | |a eBook hoopla | ||
100 | 1 | |a McKay, John J.,|e author. | |
245 | 1 | 0 | |a Discovering the Mammoth|h [electronic resource] /|c John J. McKay. |
264 | 1 | |a [United States] :|b Pegasus Books,|c 2017. | |
264 | 2 | |b Made available through hoopla | |
300 | |a 1 online resource (264 pages) | ||
336 | |a text|b txt|2 rdacontent | ||
337 | |a computer|b c|2 rdamedia | ||
338 | |a online resource|b cr|2 rdacarrier | ||
347 | |a text file|2 rda | ||
506 | |a Instant title available through hoopla. | ||
520 | |a The fascinating saga of solving the mystery of this ancient animal who once roamed the north country-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 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. | ||
538 | |a Mode of access: World Wide Web. | ||
650 | 0 | |a Electronic books. | |
710 | 2 | |a hoopla digital. | |
856 | 4 | 0 | |u https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13358033?utm_source=MARC&Lid=hh4435|z Instantly available on hoopla. |
856 | 4 | 2 | |z Cover image|u https://d2snwnmzyr8jue.cloudfront.net/ssd_9781681774817_180.jpeg |