———. 1980. Conversion of Tropical Moist Forests. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.
———. 1996. Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability. Washington, D.C.: Island.
Nitecki, Matthew H., ed. 1984. Extinctions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Office of Technology Assessment, U. S. Congress. 1993. Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Peters, Robert L., and Thomas E. Lovejoy, eds. 1992. Global Warming and Biological Diversity. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
Pimm, Stuart, Gareth Russell, John L. Gittleman, and Thomas M. Brooks. 1995. “The Future of Biodiversity.” Science, vol. 269, July 21.
Pimm, Stuart L. 1991. The Balance of Nature?: Ecological Issues on the Conservation of Species and Communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pimm Stuart L., and Thomas M. Brooks. 1997. “The Sixth Extinction: How Large, How Soon, and Where?” Draft of a paper presented to the Nature and Human Society symposium, Washington, D.C. October.
Pimm, Stuart L., and John H. Lawton. 1998. “Planning for Biodiversity.” Science, vol. 279, March 27.
Potts, Rick. 1996. Humanity’s Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability. New York: Morrow.
Raup, David M. 1986. The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science. New York: W. W. Norton.
———. 1991. Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? New York: W. W. Norton.
Sepkoski, J. John, Jr., and David M. Raup. 1986. “Periodicity in Marine Extinction Events.” In Elliott (1986).
Simberloff, Daniel. 1986. “Are We on the Verge of a Mass Extinction in Tropical Rain Forests?” In Elliott (1986).
Simon, Julian L. 1981. The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
———. 1986. “Disappearing Species, Deforestation and Data.” New Scientist, May 19.
Simon, Julian L., and Aaron Wildavsky. 1993. “Facts, Not Species, Are Imperiled.” New York Times, May 13.
Soulé, Michael E., and M. A. Sanjayan. 1998. “Conservation Targets: Do They Help?” Science, vol. 279, March 27.
Stanley, Steven M. 1987. Extinction. New York: Scientific American Library.
Steadman, David W. 1995. “Prehistoric Extinctions of Pacific Island Birds: Biodiversity Meets Zooarchaeology.” Science, vol. 267, February 24.
Terborgh, John, and Carel van Schaik. 1997. “Minimizing Species Loss: The Imperative of Protection.” In Kramer et al. (1997).
Tudge, Colin. 1996. The Time Before History: 5 Million Years of Human Impact. New York: Scribner.
United Nations Secretariat, Population Division. 1998. World Population Projections to 2150. New York: United Nations.
Ward, Peter. 1994. The End of Evolution: A Journey in Search of Clues to the Third Mass Extinction Facing Planet Earth. New York: Bantam.
Wells, H. G. (1895) 1992. The Time Machine. New York: Tom Doherty Associates.
Western, David, and Mary C. Pearl, eds. 1989. Conservation for the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press.
Whitmore, T. C., and J. A. Sayer. 1992. Tropical Deforestation and Species Extinction. London: Chapman and Hall.
Wilson, Edward O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap/Harvard University Press.
World Conservation Monitoring Center. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
The River Jumps Over the Mountain
Auden, W. H. 1989. Selected Poems. Edited by Edward Mendelson. New York: Vintage.
Beus, Stanley S., and Michael Morales, eds. 1990. Grand Canyon Geology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dean, Dennis R. 1992. James Hutton and the History of Geology. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Gould, Stephen Jay. 1987. Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Hamblin, W. Kenneth, and J. Keith Rigby. 1969. Guidebook to the Colorado River, Part 2: Phantom Ranch in Grand Canyon National Park to Lake Mead, Arizona-Nevada. Brigham Young University Geology Studies, vol. 16. Provo, Utah: Department of Geology, Brigham Young University.
McPhee, John. 1981. Basin and Range. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Playfair, John. (1802) 1964. Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. Facsimile reprint, with an introduction by George W. White. New York: Dover.
Price, L. Greer. 1999. An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology. Grand Canyon, Ariz.: Grand Canyon Association.
Stevens, Larry. 1999. The Colorado River in Grand Canyon: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Natural and Human History. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Red Lake.
Whitney, Stephen R. 1996. A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon. Seattle: Mountaineers.
The Post-Communist Wolf
Behr, Edward. 1991. Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus. New York: Villard.
Codrescu, Andrei. 1991. The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution. New York: William Morrow.
Crisan, Vasile. 1994. Jäger? Schlächter: Ceausescu. (Privately translated for me by Eduard Érsek as “Ceausescu: Hunter or Butcher?”) Mainz: Verlag Dieter Hoffmann.
Cullen, Robert. 1990. “Report from Romania.” The New Yorker, April 2.
Deletant, Dennis. 1995. Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989. London: Hurst.
Fischer-Gala¸ti, Stephen. 1970. Twentieth-Century Rumania. New York: Columbia University Press.
Georgescu, Vlad. 1991. The Romanians: A History. Translated by Alexandra Bley-Vroman, edited by Matei Calinescu. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Hale, Julian. 1971. Ceausescu’s Romania: A Political Documentary. London: George G. Harrap.
Judt, Tony. “Romania: Bottom of the Heap.” New York Review of Books, November 1.
Mech, L. David. 1981. The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Mertens, Annette, and Christoph Promberger. 2000. “Economic Aspects of Large Carnivore-Livestock Conflicts in Romania.” (Draft.)
Pacepa, Lieutenant General Ion Mihai. 1987. Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus’ [sic] Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway.
The Megatransect
Ambrose, Stephen E. 1996. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Touchstone.
Barnes, R.F.W., and S. A. Lahm. 1997. “An Ecological Perspective on Human Densities in the Central African Forests.” Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 34.
Farrell, Byron. 1985. The Man Who Presumed: A Biography of Henry M. Stanley. New York: W. W. Norton.
Fay, J. Michael. 1997. “The Ecology, Social Organization, Populations, Habitat and History of the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla Savage and Wyman 1847).” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Washington University, St. Louis.
Georges, Alain-Jean, Eric M. Leroy, André A. Renaut, Carol Tevi Benissan, René J. Nabias, Minh Trinh Ngoc, Paul I. Obiang, J.P.M. Lepage, Eric J. Bertherat, David D. Bénoni, E. Jean Wickings, Jacques P. Amblard, Joseph M. Lansoud-Soukate, J. M. Milleliri, Sylvain Baize, and Marie-Claude Georges-Courbot. 1999. “Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreaks in Gabon, 1994–1997: Epidemiologic and Health Control Issues.” Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 1, no. 79, supplement 1.
Huijbregts, Bas. 2000. “Gorilles et Chimpanzees a Minkebe: Decimes par Ebola?” Unpublished report to the World Wildlife Fund, February 9.
Kingdon, Jonathan. 1997. The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals. New York: Academic.
Lahm, Sally. 1993. “Ecology and Economics of Human/Wildlife Interaction in Northeastern Gabon.” Unpublished doctoral dissertation, New York University, New York.
McLynn, Frank. 19
92. Hearts of Darkness: The European Exploration of Africa. New York: Carroll and Graf.
Oslisly, Richard. 1994. “The Middle Ogooué Valley: Cultural Changes and Paleoclimatic Implications of the Last Four Millennia.” Azania, vols. 29–30: A special volume on “The Growth of Farming Communities in Africa from the Equator Southwards,” J.E.G. Sutton, ed. The British Institute in Eastern Africa.
Tutin, C.E.G., and M. Fernandez. 1984. “Nationwide Census of Gorilla (Gorillag. gorilla) and Chimpanzee (Pan t. troglodytes) Populations in Gabon.” American Journal of Primatology, vol. 6.
Vansina, Jan. 1990. Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
West, Richard. 1972. Brazza of the Congo: European Exploration and Exploitation in French Equatorial Africa. London: Jonathan Cape.
A Passion for Order
The librarians, archivists, and other officials at the Linnean Society of London—notably Gina Douglas, Lynda Brooks, and the society’s executive secretary, Adrian Thomas—were extremely hospitable to my research for this piece, offering me access to Linnaeus’s personal papers and collections. In Uppsala, Mats Block and Mikael Norrby, as well as Karin Martinsson, Carl-Olof Jacobson, and many other people, welcomed my visits to Linnaeus’s houses and my persistent questions. Peter Raven, in e-mail exchanges, also helped guide my understanding of Linnaeus’s contribution to biology.
Blackwelder, R. E., and Alan Boyden. 1952. “The Nature of Systematics.” Systematic Zoology, vol. 1, no. 1, spring 1952.
Blunt, Wilfrid. 2001. Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Frängsmyr, Tore, ed. 1994. Linnaeus: The Man and His Work. Canton, Mass.: Watson.
Linnaeus, Carl. (1751) 2003. Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Translated by Stephen Freer. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mayr, Ernst. 1982. The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap/Harvard University Press.
Müller-Wille, Steffan. 2006. “Linnaeus’ Herbarium Cabinet: A Piece of Furniture and Its Function.” Endeavour, vol. 30, June.
Raven, Peter H., Brent Berlin, and Dennis E. Breedlove. 1971. “The Origins of Taxonomy.” Science, vol. 174, December 17.
Raven, Peter H., Ray F. Evert, and Susan E. Eichhorn. 1992. Biology of Plants. New York: Worth.
Reeds, Karen. 2004. “When the Botanist Can’t Draw: The Case of Linnaeus.” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol. 29, no. 3.
Ross, Herbert H. 1974. Biological Systematics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
Stearn, W. T. 1959. “The Background of Linnaeus’s Contributions to the Nomenclature and Methods of Systematic Biology.” Systematic Zoology, vol. 8, no. 1, March.
Citizen Wiley
Thomas, Dylan. 1933. “And Death Shall Have No Dominion.” New English Weekly, March. Reprinted in his Twenty-Five Poems (1936) and in my copy of Modern American Poetry/Modern British Poetry (1958), given to me in 1966 by a friend who is also now dead but not forgotten.
Clone Your Troubles Away
Alexander, Brian. 2004. “John Sperling Wants You to Live Forever.” Wired, February.
Bawa, Kamaljit S., Shaily Menon, and Leah R. Gorman. 1997. “Cloning and Conservation of Biological Diversity: Paradox, Panacea, or Pandora’s Box?” Conservation Biology, vol. 11, no. 4, August.
Commoner, Barry. 2002. “Unraveling the DNA Myth: The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering.” Harper’s, February.
Corley-Smith, Graham E., and Bruce P. Brandhorst. 1999. “Preservation of Endangered Species and Populations: A Role for Genome Banking, Somatic Cell Cloning, and Androgenesis?” Molecular Reproduction and Development, vol. 53.
Cohen, Jon. 1997. “Can Cloning Help Save Beleaguered Species?” Science, vol. 276, May 30.
Gomez, Martha, Earle Pope, Rebecca Harris, Susan Mikota, and Betsy L. Dresser. 2003. “Development of In Vitro Matured, In Vitro Fertilized Domestic Cat Embryos Following Cryopreservation, Culture and Transfer.” Theriogenology, vol. 60, issue 2, July.
Gomez, Martha C., Jill A. Jenkins, Angelica Giraldo, Rebecca F. Harris, Amy King, Betsy L. Dresser, and Charles Earle Pope. 2003. “Nuclear Transfer of Synchronized African Wild Cat Somatic Cells into Enucleated Domestic Cat Oocytes.” Biology of Reproduction, vol. 69.
Graeber, Charles. 2000. “How Much Is That Doggy In Vitro?” Wired, March.
Kraemer, Duane C., Gary T. Moore, and Martin A. Kramen. 1976. “Baboon Infant Produced by Embryo Transfer.” Science, vol. 192, June 18.
Lanza, Robert P., Jose B. Cibelli, Francisca Diaz, Carlos T. Moraes, Peter W. Farin, Charlotte E. Farin, Carolyn J. Hammer, Michael D. West, and Philip Damiani. 2000. “Cloning of an Endangered Species (Bos gaurus) Using Interspecies Nuclear Transfer.” Cloning, vol. 2, no. 2.
Lanza, Robert P., Jose B. Cibelli, David Faber, Raymond W. Sweeney, Boyd Henderson, Wendy Nevala, Michael D. West, and Peter J. Wettstein. 2001. “Cloned Cattle Can Be Healthy and Normal.” Science, vol. 294, November 30.
Lanza, Robert P., Betsy L. Dresser, and Philip Damiani. 2000. “Cloning Noah’s Ark.” Scientific American, November.
Loi, Pasqualino, Graznya Ptak, Barbara Barboni, Josef Fulka, Jr., Pietro Cappai, and Michael Clinton. 2001. “Genetic Rescue of an Endangered Mammal by Cross-Species Nuclear Transfer Using Post-Mortem Somatic Cells.” Nature Biotechnology, vol. 19, no. 10, October.
Long, C. R., S. C. Walker, R. T. Tang, and M. E. Westhusin. 2003. “New Commercial Opportunities for Advanced Reproductive Technologies in Horses, Wildlife, and Companion Animals.” Theriogenology, vol. 59.
McGrath, James, and Davor Solter. 1984. “Inability of Mouse Blastomere Nuclei Transferred into Enucleated Zygotes to Support Development In Vitro.” Science, vol. 226, December 14.
Rennie, John. 2000. “Cloning and Conservation.” Scientific American, November.
Rieseberg, Loren H., Barry Sinervo, C. Randal Linder, Mark C. Ungerer, and Dulce M. Arias. 1996. “Role of Gene Interactions in Hybrid Speciation: Evidence from Ancient and Experimental Hybrids.” Science, vol. 272, May 3.
Sandel, Michael J. 2004. “The Case Against Perfection.” Atlantic Monthly, April.
Shin, Taeyoung, Duane Kraemer, Jane Pryor, Ling Liu, James Rugila, Lisa Howe, Sandra Buck, Keith Murphy, Leslie Lyons, and Mark Westhusin. 2002. “A Cat Cloned by Nuclear Transplantation.” Nature, vol. 415, February 21.
Stone, Richard. 1999. “Cloning the Woolly Mammoth.” Discover, April.
Weidensaul, Scott. 2002. “Raising the Dead.” Audubon, May-June.
Westhusin, Mark, Katrin Hinrichs, Young-ho Choi, Taeyoung Shin, Ling Liu, and Duane Kraemer. 2003. “Cloning Companion Animals (Horses, Cats, and Dogs).” Cloning and Stem Cells, vol. 5, no. 4.
Westhusin, Mark, and Jorge Piedrahita. 2000. “Three Little Pigs Worth the Huff and Puff?” Nature Biotechnology, vol. 18, November.
Westhusin, M. E., R. C. Burghardt, J. N. Rugila, L. A. Willingham, L. Liu, T. Shin, L. M. Howe, D. C. Kraemer. 2001. “Potential for Cloning Dogs.” Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, Supplement, vol. 59.
Westhusin, M. E., C. R. Long, T. Shin, J. R. Hill, C. R. Looney, J. H. Pryor, and J. A. Piedrahita.. 2001. Theriogenology, vol. 55.
Williams, B., T. Shin, L. Liu, G. Flores-Foxworth, J. Romano, M. Westhusin, and D. Kraemer. 2002. “Interspecies Nuclear Transfer of Desert Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana).” Theriogenology, vol. 57, January 1.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Quammen is the author of four books of fiction and seven acclaimed nonfiction titles, including The Reluctant Mr. Darwin and The Song of the Dodo, which was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for natural history writing. He has been honored with an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is a three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award, most recently for a cover story in National Geographic entitled “Was Darwin Wrong?” Quammen currently holds the Wallace Stegner Chair of We
stern American Studies at Montana State University, in Bozeman. He is also a contributing writer for National Geographic.
* More is known, however, and more biologists seem to care, than when this essay first appeared in 1984. Field studies have indeed been conducted, yielding some interesting results. The herpetologist Harry Greene informs me that four distinct species of anaconda are now identified in South America. They differ in size and geographical distribution, among other ways. Two are widely distributed and somewhat familiar to science: our Eunectes murinus, today commonly called the green anaconda, which lives mainly in the Amazon basin and northern South America; and Eunectes notaeus, the yellow anaconda, which is considerably smaller at its average adult size (a mere 10 feet) and inhabits the swamps and rivers of southern Bolivia, Paraguay, and thereabouts. The other two species (Eunectes deschauenseei and Eunectes beniensis) are more narrowly distributed and still poorly known. Things have changed much in the realms of science and communication, not just since Percy Fawcett explored the Amazon but since I visited with Randy Borman. When further taxonomic and distributional information about anacondas is available, it will probably be posted on Wikipedia within hours.
* And some things don’t change. The cash prize offered is now up to $30,000, Harry Greene tells me, and it still hasn’t been claimed as of January 2007.
* Within recent months a female Komodo dragon named Flora, at a zoo in England, produced five hatchlings despite her total lack of breeding contact with any male. Roughly seventy other reptile species besides Varanus komodoensis are now known to be capable of parthenogenesis. Somehow, though for no particular reason, it seems even more amazing in a vertebrate—such as a giant lizard or a bird—than in aphids. Probably that’s because we are vertebrates ourselves, and biased toward believing that sexual reproduction is a “higher” form than asexual.
Natural Acts Page 36
