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Discovering the Mammoth Hardcover – August 8, 2017

by John J McKay (Author)

3.9 20 ratings

Editors' pick Best Nonfiction

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The fascinating saga of solving the mystery of this ancient animal who once roamed the north country—and has captivated our collective imagination ever since.

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 overcame centuries of myth and misunderstanding to reconstruct an unknown animal?

The journey to unravel that puzzle begins in the 1690s with the arrival of 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.

Print length

264 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Pegasus Books
Publication date

August 8, 2017
Dimensions

6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1681774240
ISBN-13

978-1681774244
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

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

"A well-organized history of science. [McKay’s] story is not about ancient creatures, but about how humans approach the world’s mysteries." ― Publishers Weekly

"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

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books; 1st edition (August 8, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681774240
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681774244
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,362,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #284 in Biology of Dinosaurs
- #332 in Biology of Fossils
- #424 in Paleontology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.9 20 ratings

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3.9 out of 5

20 global ratings

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4 star		16%
3 star		12%
2 star		8%
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C. J. Skamarakas

Excellent Study

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

Excellent and detailed book, with great source material, on the history of how the strange ivory found in various places was finally determined to be the ancient animal we know as the mammoth. Especially interesting was the history behind all of the attempts by various scientists to determine what exactly had been dug up from the permafrost and other new locations. Definitely worth reading for those interested in the history of scientific discovery.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

A great topic, but the book fails to do it justice. The writing is glib at best, clunky at worst, and nearly every page is marred by multiple typos. More seriously, the author is unable to distinguish significant details from trivia, and large portions of the book read like padding, leading the impatient reader to flip ahead in search of the next step in the story. A nice first draft, I suppose, but a good editor and a better proofreader would have turned this into a book worth reading.

8 people found this helpful

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Kathryn R. Olson

Mammoths Rule

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

It's obvious this is a life long passion project. Mr. McKay presents his subject with clear concise language that even a non scientific person like myself can enjoy. I also appreciated his sense of humor. Thank you for expanding my knowledge of mammoths and paleontology beyond The Ice Age movies

5 people found this helpful

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Hammarhead

Discovering the Mammoth is a fascinating Tale

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

I always thought that there were only a few Mammoth in existence, but this book makes clear that there were many fossil remains. How they were discovered is the theme of this book, but I was disappointed that the book did not deal with theories of how they went extinct. Still interesting tale

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Roscoe

What a fun book! If you're a bit of a science ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

What a fun book! If you're a bit of a science nerd, and interested in how culture influences our ability to perceive truth, you'll love this. The book is about how humans, thousands of years after mammoths went extinct, interpreted the physical evidence of what they were. An amazing variety of explanations emerged, slowly converging to what we understand now, that they are an extinct animal closely related to living elephants. That's a pretty dry description of what is a very interesting and humorous book. This author should write more!

8 people found this helpful

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Dave DeWitt

and this book tediously examines the discoveries of mammoth bones and what people ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I mistakenly assumed that this book would be about mammoths--like a natural history of an extinct animal. I was wrong, and this book tediously examines the discoveries of mammoth bones and what people imagined them to be. I made it through page 58 before I realized what was causing me to skim and skip pages: boredom. Also, the book is terribly proofed with spelling and grammatical mistakes on nearly every page.

One person found this helpful

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Peter Hill

This is an excellent book for the serious student or someone who is ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book for the serious student or someone who is just curious about man's study of mammoths. Mr. McKay is a compelling storyteller and makes even the driest subjects interesting.

4 people found this helpful

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Bridger44

Keeping the faith

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

Most entertaining and revealing. Shows how the ignorant savages could be much smarter than the learned Christians.

One person found this helpful

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Discovering the Mammoth Hardcover – August 8, 2017

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