Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
19th century naturalist noted for now-debunked evolutionary theory “the power of life” which proposed that a natural force “pushed organisms to become increasingly complex.”
Charles Darwin
Another 19th century naturalist who theories on the origin of the species displaced those of Lamarck. The father of the theory of evolution which proposes that it is “natural selection” which is the force responsible for evolution of some species and the extinction of others.
Paul Crutzen
Crutzen is a Nobel-winning Dutch chemist responsible for identifying how compounds are depleting the ozone layer. He is also the person who coined the term “Anthropocene” to refer to the modern era of human occupancy on earth.
Capt. James Cook
The legendary British captain whose work as explorer, map-maker and navigator has been of infinite use to successors in all branches of science. His primary importance in the text, however, is his accidental discovery of the Great Barrier Reef as a result of crashing his ship upon it and his subsequent obsession with understanding how it could have risen to such an unusual height.
Thomas Jefferson
The author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the U.S. enters into the story of mass extinction and evolution by virtue of weighing in on the controversy surrounding the various explanations proffered after the discovery of mastodon fossils. Jefferson’s contribution is considered quite quaint today: he suggested that the bones belonged to an animal called the Buffon—“the largest of all beasts”—and that, furthermore, the Buffon was not extinct, but still running wild somewhere in the great unexplored wilderness of America. As part of their mission to explore that wilderness at the behest of Jefferson, Lewis and Clark were sent westward partially on the hope that they would find evidence of the animal’s existence.
