Frank Valoy- Chapter 2: The Mastodon’s Molars

              In chapter 2, Elizabeth Kolbert brings up the idea that extinction isn’t an obvious idea and that extinction was not shown in books during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Extinction eventually became a concept when fossils of the American Mastodon were discovered and because of the naturalist Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier. Baron de Longueuil found a tusk, femur, and molars that belonged to the American Mastodon and they were displayed in a museum. Before it was found that it was from the American Mastodon, there were debates about which bones belonged to what animal and the idea that they came from a species that was extinct came up.
              The Mastodon was compared to an elephant, but it was classified as its own genus and family because it was more distant from modern elephants than mammoths. The question rose about how the Mastodon became extinct and Culvier believed that extinctions of species had to be caused by catastrophes and disturbing events. It was concluded that this belief was not true because physical evidence demonstrated gradual change and catastrophes would create rapid changes.
              It was discovered that the American Mastodon vanished 13,000 years ago during the wave of the Megafauna extinction. It was believed that it was caused by the spread of humans.
              There was a quote from Kolbert that I felt had a lot of meaning to it. She stated, “Eventually one reached a world not just previous to ours, but a world previous to that, dominated by giant reptiles”(Pg. 41). (Q) Based on her quote, is she referring to dinosaurs when she mentions “giant reptiles”? I feel like she might be because it was scientifically proven that dinosaurs once roamed the Earth a very long time ago. This quote connects to the theme “Science constantly changes the way we understand the world” because having fossil records of different species helps to unleash a new world  from the past that was much different than our world in the present day.