Summary And Critique Of Twilight Of The Mammoths : Ice Age Extinctions And The Rewilding Of America

Courtney states that “one fourth of Earth’s species could be facing extinction by 2050.” This is a very big concern for everyone around the globe because if one animal

Faith & Surovell offer hopes for further testing for biological and spatial histories of individual species and their migrations in relation to climate, ecology, and human permeation. They state this will uncover which if not all of the three main mechanisms: climate change, overkill, and extraterrestrial impact, caused the North American mammal extinctions in the late Pleistocene (Faith and Surovell, 2009).

Stephen Gould’s essay “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” completely agrees with Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb’s essay “Argument, Critical Thinking, and Rationality.” Gould’s essay deals with three theories for the extinction of the dinosaurs, two of which he argues are entirely invalid because they are not in accordance with the basic rules of argument laid out by Williams and Colomb in their essay. Gould also states that the third theory of dinosaur extinction, natural disaster, follows all the rules that Williams and Colomb espouse, and thus is a sound argument. Gould, Williams, and Colomb all state that the world has a problem with irrational arguments being shoved down people’s throats, and call for a

The article, The Mammoth Cometh, uses many appeals and techniques to relay the importance of de-extinction, especially in relation to Novak's passion, the passenger pigeon. Pathos are effectively used to in giving us (the audience) a personal connection with Ben Novak as the author takes us on hikes as a boy throughout the badlands near his home, “exploring a vast petrified forest,” in North Dakota. “Novak frequently came across vertebrae, phalanges and rib fragments of extinct crocodiles,” and other animals. With such a childhood it’s no wonder that at 13, Novak pledged his life to the resurrection of extinct animals. A few years later he ‘fell in love at first sight’ with passenger pigeons and has since dedicated his life to their cause. The burning passion he has for these extinct animals can't help but inspire us. He is described as “overcome by awe, sadness and the birds’ physical beauty,” and has visited 339 preserved passenger pigeons. His solid determination in the revival and restoration of these birds is also unbelievable, trying first to become a part of a lab already sequencing passenger pigeon DNA and then, when he was not accepted, writing more than 30 times to an institute to receive a sample of a bird’s tissue to do it himself. Ultimately, he was able to partner with the other lab, but the owner expressed that she was worried “his zeal might interfere with his ability to do serious science.”

In Stephen Jay Gould’s “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs”, Gould investigates three possible theories hypothesizing the reason behind the extinction of dinosaurs. The first theory suggests that dinosaurs became extinct due to a rise in temperature, which caused sperm to die, leading to the sterilization of male dinosaurs. The second hypothesis offer that many dinosaurs consumed bitter plants that contained psychoactive agents which their lives could not detoxify out of their systems. The last speculation about the dinosaur’s extinction is that a large cloud of dust formed in the atmosphere after an asteroid hit Earth’s surface. This dust cloud blocked out the sunlight, causing temperatures to drop and made photosynthesis impossible. Gould uses these three theories to lead to his central claim that science isn’t just about making fascinating claims, but should have a well developed hypothesis.

There have been five major mass extinction on earth triggered by a distinguishable event, but in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert writes of the narrative of the sixth extinction caused directly by human impact. The book identifies the effects of human activity on how, over humans history on earth, the natural world has been affected. Every environmental impact stems into three basic groups of global problems to nature: Pollution, Habitat loss and Invasive Species. Kolbert explains that each impact can be traced back to one source, human industrial development. With each impact various types of life in the natural world are affected. Deforestation, urbanization, and sea level rise contribute to habitat loss worldwide. When humans began to travel they also brought invasive species and disease along with them; as boats only became bigger more and more invasive species travel. This reverse engineering of the planet species, brings new species that don’t have any natural predators, thus having an easier time driving native species out to endangerment or extinction. The different outcomes that come from human pollution is separated throughout the book, but the idea remains constant; with the development of human culture, pollution has drastically impacted a vast extent of species habitats and their environment.

The Indians were obligated to foraged for food. 2. 1.2  What role did humans play in the extinction of large mammals in North America?

“It is possible that the plants and animals that he brings with him have caused the extinction of more species of life forms in the last four hundred years than the usual processes of evolution might kill off in a million.”

Ten thousand years ago, mammoths once inhabited the land we now call home. Where we eat and shop, where we sleep and go to class was once home to these beasts. Standing over fourteen feet tall and with tusks over sixteen feet long these animals found the area now known as Waco their home. I did not know that mammoths even inhabited the Texas, and even more surprised that they lived here in Waco. There are many incredible things that happen here in Waco, and the Waco Mammoth National Park is one of them. This newly sanctioned national park is beautiful and with its incredible history it attracts the attention of thousands of tourists every year. For this park, I analyzed, the quality of the tour and for the tour guide to be informative, if the price of the park is worth the money,

The author also mentions how some of the damage already caused to the earth might be irreversible. He uses articles and books to support all his arguments and statements making it seem reasonable. I can agree on some of his points but he seems to change his stance and says that people are working on maintaining the earth which makes it seem a bit contradictory. His argument seemed consistent and unbiased while making clear statements with books and articles to help backup his

The extinction of the dinosaurs, absolutely a thrilling topic. In Steven Gould’s persuasive article he goes into great detail to describe the nature of science and it’s profound nature to help us in the pursuit of knowledge when used correctly. He then begins to describe three scenarios in which could’ve led to the extinction of the dinosaurs in which two while seemingly plausible at first glance are in actuality simply speculation. Thus, just like a good hypothesis using evidence to support his critiques and support of the hypotheses. Which is why I agree with Gould’s statement on how out of the three hypotheses, the extinction of the dinosaurs

In this paper, I will be summarizing the theory of overkill in chapter two of ‘’Twilight of the Mammoths’’, by Paul Martin. Before, I get into this started a little background information about who the author is. Martin was a scientist that studied forms of life existing in prehistoric times that was represented by the fossils of plants and animals. His overkill theory was that he argued, that humans were very much responsible of over hunting for the Late Pleistocene extinction of megafauna of mammoth, slots and Neanderthals in northern Eurasia and North and South America in the last thousands years ago. ‘’ to me the core piece of evidence for human involvement is that when viewed globally, near time extinctions took place episodically, in a pattern not correlating with climatic change or any known factor other than the spread of species. Extinctions followed prehistoric human colonization’s in a ‘’deadly syncopation’’ to use the words of mammalogist Ross MacPhee. (Martin, 51) It was also stated that when humans moved into different areas of the world that’s when huntable animals were wiped out. The archaeological

In a summary, Kolbert explains the extinctions of a variety of different major animal species that became extinct. She also explains that if trends in the environment continue that the biggest extinction in history will occur soon. If global warming, deforestation, and glaciers continue to melt she says that more and more species will continue to become extinct. She explains how humans need to be more conservative and careful with what they’re doing to prevent extinction.

Since the beginning of life itself, some species have lived and prospered while other species have gone extinct never to be seen again by mankind. Because of this, some would claim that extinction is natural and not significantly problematic to the world that we live in. Others, however, understand that due to climate change, habitat loss, and poaching, more and more species are becoming endangered which leads to a chain reaction that can be devastating to ecosystems. Species such as the Chinook salmon, gorillas, tropical sharks, and polar bears are all directly affected by climate change, species such as northern spotted owls, Sumatran tigers, and lemurs are greatly harmed due to habitat loss, and species such as the sea turtle, Javan rhinoceros, African elephant, and the Red-Fronted Macaw are all affected by poaching driving them all closer and closer to becoming extinct.

It’s clear that a great extinction is coming from the evidence of the destruction of other species around us. The choices made by the human race have too often negatively affected the surrounding species. Tracy Wilson, the site director for HowStuffWorks.com, in an article for Animal Planet, states that