Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo - Softcover

Pinto-Correia, Clara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1441931805 ISBN 13: 9781441931801

Publisher: Copernicus, 2010

Synopsis

Using the history of the concept of extinction with the dodo as a case study, Pinto-Correia carefully weaves together story fragments to give a cohesive eye-opening view of 17th century exploration and the grave ramifications it had for the survival and extinction of many species. More importantly, she shows us the intellectual underpinnings of the old view that it was acceptable for some animals to die out. Within this narrative, we can see what the modern view of the dodo tells us about the history of our changing understanding and valuation of nature and our place in it. Strong writing, powered by lively historical anecdotes and sober insights into human behavior, makes this beautifully illustrated book a page-turner to the end.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

The dodo went from being newly discovered to extinction in little more than a century. This flightless, odd-looking bird was seen for the first time by Europeans and then annihilated by Europeans all between the early sixteenth and the second half of the seventeenth century. By the end of the nineteenth century, all that remained of what Portuguese explorers called the "crazy bird" was a patchwork of tall tales, contradictory reports, incompatible illustrations, and a single dodo's skull and foot. The dodo had become, in short, an unsolvable puzzle, but a puzzle that persisted in art, literature, and scientific speculation.

In this remarkable book, Clara Pinto-Correia shows how the human intellect and the imagination prey on sketchy facts and images, and how missing pieces and incomplete lines are merged and fused to make a cohesive whole. By considering the incredibly strong hold of this bumbling and ungainly creature on our collective scientific and literary imagination, Pinto-Correia teaches us not just about the ill-fated bird from the island paradise of Mauritius, but about our own abiding need to make sense of the world around us.

About the Author:

Clara Pinto-Correia is the author of the best-selling The Ovary of Eve. She has taught in the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; served as a research assistant at Harvard University in the Museum of Comparative Zoology; and is currently Professor and Director of the Masters Degree Program in Developmental Biology at the Universidade Lusofona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisbon, Portugal.

About this edition

• Publisher: Copernicus
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1441931805
• ISBN 13: 9781441931801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224