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Animals of the Past

by Frederic LUCAS (1852 - 1929)

Chapter 1 Fossils, and How They Are Formed

Prior to the emergence of paleontology and comparative anatomy as scientific disciplines at the end of the 18th century, it was generally known that there were species of animals that had disappeared completely. The term "extinction" originally applied to the extinguishing of fires or erasing of one's debt. It was not until 1784 that the term extinction was used to denote the complete eradication of a species of living being. In 1901, Frederic A. Lucas penned an overview of vertebrate animals whose only evidence of being remained in fossil records. The book focuses primarily on vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals. - Summary by Jeffery Smith

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Listen next episodes of Animals of the Past:
Chapter 10 The Mammoth , Chapter 11 The Mastodon , Chapter 12 Why Do Animals Become Extinct? , Chapter 2 The Earliest Known Vertebrates , Chapter 3 Impressions of the Past , Chapter 4 Rulers of the Ancient Seas , Chapter 5 Birds of Old , Chapter 6 The Dinosaurs , Chapter 7 Reading the Riddles of the Rocks , Chapter 8 Feathered Giants , Chapter 9 Ancestry of the Horse