Chapter 3 by Andrea Guinanzaca

Chapter 3 was about other theories that scientists continued to develop. Kolbert introduces William Whewell, who introduces an important word: catastrophist. Although the word’s meaning has changed through the years, back then, this word described a scientist who believes that extinction is a uniform process leading to an era of mass extinction. The chapter also discusses the word uniformitarianism, which means that the species and landscape will eventually change in placement. Later we hear about a uniformitarian whose name was Charles Lyell. He was known as a great scientist much like Cuvier. One of his most important readers was Charles Darwin. Darwin and Lyell where two scientists that developed very different theories about extinction. However, Darwin completed Cuiver’'s theory of extinction, he argued that if some animals went extinct over time then other animals must appear over time. Non-evidence theories like these are what caused revolutionaries over the concept of natural selection and theory of extinction. In this chapter, we can see that Darwin sees nature as a battleground because different species are competing for an order to avoid extinction and reproduce. A connection that this chapter has to the previous chapter (Chapter 2), is that in this chapter we understand why Cuvier's had objections over the theory of evolution. Therefore in this chapter, Kolbert visits the Icelandic Museum of Natural History to learn about the Great Auk. Before going into Kolbert’s journey at the Museum, we learned that Charles Darwin believed that no humans had ever experienced the emergence of a new species. But this chapter reveals how humans have witnessed the extinction of an old species and of a revival of a new species without realizing it. So, in the museum, Kolbert visits the Great Auk, a bird that was almost about 3 feet tall and couldn't fly. Kolbert gives some background history about the bird, such as how the Great Auk were amazing swimmers, which meant that they spent most of their lives in the water. However, throughout the years, humans began hunting Great Auk leading them into extinction. This part of history connects back to when Charles Darwin went to Galapagos Islands where he uses to see visit tortoises, tortoises that were eventually over hunted by humans as well. In conclusion, Darwin's concept of natural selection eventually became catastrophic, the meaning of mass extinction. However, he viewed these animal extinctions as human nature because it was something that humans had to do in order to survive such like hunting tortoises or the Great Aux. However, Kolbert argues that humans are not any different from other species and that we cause other species to die out.