The Golden Frogs
The golden frogs of El Valle, Panama are quickly situated as the symbol of the author’s passion to conduct the multiple studies which comprise the book. The author first learned about the frogs from an article in a children’s magazine; a few weeks later she read a scientific article that connected the very same frogs to the possibility of the next great extinction. From that one cute appearance randomly found in a magazine for kids eventually grew an entire Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
The Great Barrier Reef
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—the most recognizable and famous coral reef in the world—is the perfect symbol for the contention that man is directly involved in bringing about what will be the sixth extinction. Practically since Captain Cook’s expedition became the first Europeans to ever see it, it has become victimized by that influence to the point where it now a recognized worldwide symbol of the harm that that man-made pollution causes to the oceans.
The March of the Army Ants
At the other end of the spectrum is a sight as unfamiliar to most as the Great Barrier Reef is familiar: the march of army ants in the Amazonian rainforest. The author describes waiting in anticipation to see this amazing sight for herself only to wind up disappointed as the ants never show up. Instead, they go into their “statuary phase” which left the birds waiting for the march in order to feed upon the ants equally confused and frustrated. This unexpected change in behavior patterns which leaves the predators of the ants without a food source becomes a symbol for the much more global means by which evolutionary change depends upon routine over a long period of time to allow for species adaptation.
Two Great Auks and Three Ignorant Icelanders
The story of three men from Iceland who captured (and promptly killed) the last two surviving great auks (a large penguin-like bird native to the northern hemisphere) an in the process stepped on broke the single egg they had been protecting becomes the book’s most memorable symbol of the simple stupidity of humans that have already caused thousands of species to go extinct.
Symbolism
Near the end of the book, symbolism itself—or, rather, the ability and need to express the world through symbolism—become a defining symbol of evolution. Prehistorical art by Homo Sapiens is relatively plentiful throughout the caves of the world, but the same cannot be said for Neanderthals. They produced no art; they developed either no ability or no need to express themselves symbolically in the same way. From this anthropological fact, Kolbert muses upon the possibility that this notable differentiation between similar species may somehow account for why one prevailed and another became extinct.
