These bones were not gigantic lizards or elephants. Therefore it followed that these old bones could only represent variants of animals still alive.īut with further study, that early view proved unsupportable. Individual animals might die, but whole species did not. The natural world at that time was essentially seen as a static, unchanging world. Most scientists thought that this explanation must be true, since God had created the world in the Biblical seven days-and God would never allow any of his creations to become extinct. What could account for these bones? What animals did they represent? At first, scientists argued that the bones were the remnants of gigantic versions of animals now represented in smaller, contemporary forms. In the late 1700s, when giant animal bones were first dug up in Europe, they caused a crisis among scientists of the time. Why are people so interested in dinosaurs? Why are we so fascinated by these giant vanished creatures from the past? There are many reasons, but the I believe most compelling is that the dinosaurs confront us-directly and unavoidably-with the reality of extinction.
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