The Species Seekers: Heroes Fools and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth

About this book

The 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 werent sure where vegetable ended and animal began we couldnt classify species and we didnt understand the causes of disease. But all that changed as the species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on Earthand our place within it. 36 black-and-white illustrations