History of Mammalogy
v Before
the advent of written language, knowledge about mammals was passed down from
generation to generation with art and oral stories.
o
Cave paintings and petroglyphs show
earliest recorded evidence of human knowledge about mammals.
v Glyphs
were later used to record information about mammals, which were valued
primarily as food sources and work animals.
v Early
interests in studying animals were fostered in Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
o
Natural philosophers were curious about
both living animals and fossils that had been discovered.
o
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to
group animals. He characterized mammals
in the following way:
v Pliny
the Elder (AD 23-79) made extensive records of what he observed and heard about
various mammals. These writings are
primarily anecdotal. Listen to some of
his writing:
v Later,
the Roman anatomist Galen (AD 130-201) performed dissections, thereby
uncovering new information about the structure and function of organ systems of
many mammals.
v Early
expeditions into North Africa and the Middle East introduced European explorers
to new varieties of animals, but it wasn’t until the 1600s that the interest in
natural history was revived.
o
Mark Catesby (1683-1749)
o
Georges Buffon(1707-1788)
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Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)
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Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
o
Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Malthus, and
Charles Lyell
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Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and
Zebulon Pike
v From
the late 1700s to the mid 1800s, the fur trade in North America flourished, and
beaver pelt operations were a well-organized economic boom. However, by 1850, the fur trade was almost
nonexistent.
v In
the 19th century, U.S. Army expeditions traveled the western states
and often involved natural historians, such as Thomas Say, Spencer Fullerton
Baird, and Edgar Alexander Mearns. C.
Hart Merriam also made important contributions to the field of Mammalogy.
o
Of note was a pioneer female in
mammalogy, Martha A. Maxwell.
v Theoretical
biology was changed dramatically during the second half of the 19th
century.
Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace,
and Gregor Mendel were paramount towards the development of our current
evolutionary theories.
v Mammalogy
reached its pinnacle during its growth into a distinct discipline during the
early 1900s when there was increased effort by various universities to house
extensive mammal collections in their museums and to offer mammalogy courses to
students. Periods of renewed interest in
the field have periodically occurred since then, such as an upsurge of interest
in physiological processes in the 1960s and 70s, which resulted in many new
mammal studies relative to the topic.
v So,
why study mammals?
v And
by the way, what exactly is a mammal, anyway?