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Discovering the Mammoth

a Tale of Giants, Unicorns, Ivory, and the Birth of a New Science
Jan 04, 2018King_of_the_Squirrels rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Since childhood, I've been fascinated by mammoths and mastodons. I have not idea why; I just do. This book is a satisfying history of the discovery, confusion, and understanding of the woolly mammoth. The bones of this extinct beast were, at first and for a long time, thought to be that of giants - human giants. Later, they were interpreted as victims of the Biblical Flood or casualties of Roman invasion forces. All wrong, of course. So how did we actually come to understand them to be what we now know them to be? That's what this book explores and does so quite engagingly. Sometimes, it gets a bit too deep into some of the politics of the day but if you don't care about that stuff, you can skim past that with little lost. Overall, this is a fascinating read and a great bedtime nightstand kind of book. Cool section of photos and illustrations. Major beef: typographical errors (of which there are quite a few in the later chapters).