The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on EarthThe story of bold adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of planet Earth. Beginning with Linnaeus, a colorful band of explorers made it their mission to travel to the most perilous corners of the planet and bring back astonishing new life forms. They attracted followers ranging from Thomas Jefferson, who laid out mastodon bones on the White House floor, to twentieth-century doctors who used their knowledge of new species to conquer epidemic diseases. Acclaimed science writer Richard Conniff brings these daredevil "species seekers" to vivid life. Alongside their globe-spanning tales of adventure, he recounts some of the most dramatic shifts in the history of human thought. At the start, everyone accepted that the Earth had been created for our benefit. We weren't sure where vegetable ended and animal began, we couldn't classify species, and we didn't understand the causes of disease. But all that changed as the species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on Earth—and our place within it. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 15 | |
Chapter Two Finding the Thread | 33 |
Chapter Three Collecting and Conquest | 53 |
Chapter Seven The River Rolling Westward | 111 |
Chapter Eight If They Lost Their Skalps | 129 |
Chapter Nine The Burden of Specimens | 143 |
Chapter Eleven Am I Not a Man and a Brother? | 167 |
Chapter Fourteen The World Turned Upside Down | 209 |
Chapter Seventeen Labourer in the Field | 253 |
Chapter TwentyOne IndustrialScale Natural History | 321 |
Chapter TwentyTwo The Blessing of a Good Skirt | 337 |
Chapter TwentyThree The Beast in the Mosquito | 347 |
Necrology | 379 |
Acknowledgments | 385 |
Bibliography | 419 |
Chapter Twelve Craniological Longings | 179 |
Chapter Thirteen A Fool to Nature | 193 |
Illustration Credits | 435 |
Other editions - View all
The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth Richard Conniff Limited preview - 2011 |
The Species Seekers: Heroes Fools And The Mad Pursuit Of Life On Earth Richard Conniff No preview available - 2011 |
The Species Seekers: Heroes Fools And The Mad Pursuit Of Life On Earth Richard Conniff No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa age of discovery Alfred Russel Wallace American Philosophical Society animals Audubon Bates became beetles birds bones botanist British Museum Buffon butterflies century Chaillu Charles Charles Darwin Charles Waterton Collection of Richard collectors creatures Cuvier Darwin Correspondence Project David described Desmond and Moore discovered discovery disease Earth expedition explorer extinct fossil French Gabon genus Georges Cuvier gorilla Gosse Gray Henry Walter Bates Hooker human Hunter idea incognitum insects instance Jefferson John John James Audubon Journal Kingsley later Letter Linnaeus Linnean Society living Lyell malaria Malay Archipelago Manson monkey mosquito natural history natural world naturalists Negro ornithologist Paul Du Chaillu Peale Philadelphia races Rafinesque Richard Conniff Richard Owen River Ross Rothschild 1983 Rumphius Savage scientific scientists seemed shells ship skin skulls soon species seekers specimens Stedman taxidermy theory tion travels Vestiges Wallace's Waterton Wellcome Library Wilson wrote Wyman York Zoological