Age of Mammals: International Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century by CHRIS MANIAS

Description

Shows the Cultural Resonance of Mammal Paleontology from an International Perspective. When people today hear “paleontology,” they immediately think of dinosaurs. But for much of the history of the discipline, dramatic demonstrations of the history of life focused on the developmental history of mammals. The Age of Mammals examines how nineteenth-century scholars, writers, artists, and public audiences understood the animals they regarded as being at the summit of life. For them, mammals were crucial for understanding the formation (and possibly the future) of the natural world. Yet, as Chris Manias reveals, this combined with more troubling notions: that seemingly promising creatures had been swept aside in the “struggle for life,” or that modern biodiversity was impoverished compared to previous eras.

ISBN: 9780822947806
Author(s): CHRIS MANIAS