Discovering the Mammoth

by John J McKay

Overview

Long after the last mammoth died and was no longer part of our diet, this awe inspiring creature still played a role in human life. Cultures around the world interpreted the remains of mammoths through their own world view and mythology. When the ancient Greeks saw deposits of giant fossils, they knew they had discovered 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 a new type of ivory from Russia. It ends during the Napoleonic Wars with the first recovery of a frozen mammoth. The path to figuring out the mammoth was traveled by a colorful cast of characters, including Peter the Great, Ben Franklin, the inventor of hot chocolate, even one pirate, and it culminates with the creation of the science of paleontology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681778037
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

John J. McKay has a Master’s in History from the University of Washington. A technical writer by trade, he is the "Mammoth Guy" by vocation, and his remarkable archival research, lively wit and passion for extinct proboscideans is well known to the scientific community. He lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where people appreciate a good mammoth. Visit him at mammothtales.blogspot.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 Giants and Unicorns 1

2 The Ivory Trail 41

3 Eastern Travelers 59

4 The Swedes 85

5 Academies and Journals 101

6 The American Cousin 131

7 Siberia and Paris 153

8 The First Great Mammoth 177

Afterword 203

Acknowledgments 209

Notes 211

Bibliography 221

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

McKay argues persuasively for the mammoth as ‘a catalyst that drove a revolution in thinking.

The New Yorker

McKay masterfully weaves an intricate story of the events, politics, people, and scientific development associated with the ‘rediscovery’ of mammoths.

Booklist

As John McKay vividly relates, the scientific saga [of the mammoth] began in the seventeenth century, when the evocative remains became pivotal to the evolution of vertebrate palaeontology.

Nature

McKay masterfully weaves an intricate story of the events, politics, people, and scientific development associated with the ‘rediscovery’ of mammoths.

Booklist

Discovering the Mammoth is one of those books that make you wonder about the author as much as about his topic. Mr. McKay makes the case that, beginning about 1600, mammoths and their mastodon cousins became ‘a focusing problem for a scientific revolution.’ They were the starting point for sweeping changes in geology and comparative anatomy and in the ways we think about life on Earth. Mr. McKay fills in the European background in admirable detail. Mammoths, elephants and their kin, John McKay suggests, helped make us who we are.

The Wall Street Journal

McKay examines our long fascination with the mysterious, extinct pachyderms that once roamed the earth.

New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

06/12/2017
Technical writer McKay positions the mammoth as a “focusing problem for a scientific revolution” between the late 17th and early 19th centuries, taking the idea that figuring out what mammoths are “required new tools and new ways of looking at nature and the past.” It’s a well-organized history of science, with McKay delving deeply into primary sources, some uncovered quite recently, to trace the development of thinking about the prehistoric origins of northern ivory and massive bones. That thinking, McKay posits, was driven by disparate worldviews that led, for example, ancient Romans to envision such bones as derived from giants and devout Christian Europeans to see them as remnants of the Flood; by lively intellectual debate based in both personality and science; by trade-driven cultural exchange; and by physical discoveries that culminated in the 1801 recovery of a complete mammoth skeleton. McKay shows how, in order to understand the mammoth, natural philosophers needed to develop the concepts of evolution and extinction and to make advances in anatomy, classification, and geology. He keeps his narrative human centered, maintaining respect for scientists’ discovery processes even when their ideas turned out to be incorrect. McKay avoids probing modern research on the mammoth despite his personal enthusiasm for the subject, making it clear to the end that his story is not about ancient creatures, but about how humans approach the world’s mysteries. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel & Goderich (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"McKay examines our long fascination with the mysterious, extinct pachyderms that once roamed the earth."

New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

"McKay argues persuasively for the mammoth as ‘a catalyst that drove a revolution in thinking."

The New Yorker

"As John McKay vividly relates, the scientific saga [of the mammoth] began in the seventeenth century, when the evocative remains became pivotal to the evolution of vertebrate palaeontology."

Nature Lib

"McKay examines our long fascination with the mysterious, extinct pachyderms that once roamed the earth."

New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice)

07/01/2017
When people first encountered the extinct mammoth remains, opinions varied on what these creatures were. In a thorough look at the beginning of paleontology, especially cultural influence and assumptions, technical writer McKay traces how people interpreted this mystery. The author organized centuries of sometimes messy findings into a coherent report spanning continents. History enthusiasts will appreciate learning how the mammoth and other discoveries were documented or lost. Shipwrecks, fire, and improper preservation destroyed evidence; inaccuracies in maps, sketches, and written descriptions impeded comprehension. Readers will find it humbling that the greatest minds of past centuries were adamantly wrong and will enjoy reading about their rationales: of course, it made sense to believe that mammoths lived underground and couldn't survive upon reaching the earth's surface. Similarly, those who held to a literal interpretation of the Bible assumed that the mammoth skulls belonged to giants who once roamed the land (the concept of a defunct species would have implied a flaw in God's design, a heretical thought). VERDICT For those seeking a scholarly, straightforward examination of paleontology's origins and key players.—Elissa Cooper, Helen Plum Memorial Lib., Lombard, IL

Library Journal