Sea Slugs, Wombats, Microbes
Richard Fortey: Species Seekers, 28 April 2011
The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth
by Richard Conniff.
Norton, 464 pp., £19.99, November 2010,978 0 393 06854 2 Show More
by Richard Conniff.
Norton, 464 pp., £19.99, November 2010,
“... impressive pioneers in recording life on the continent. I hadn’t realised the extent to which Thomas Jefferson, for example, engaged in speculation about the affinities of fossilised mammoth bones that had turned up in West Virginia: there are even species named jeffersoni. But taxonomy also attracted charlatans and deranged enthusiasts. Constantine ... ”