Sharpe
1/24/2017
The Supple Rock:
The first issue that I have about the first chapter within the book called "Mountains of the Heart" by Weidensaul revolves around a comment about amphibians, "..... when the first amphibians were just deciding they liked dry land." The main issue I have with this is that you cannot place human thoughts, or feelings to another animal, or group of animals. We cannot simple determine the wellbeing of an animal, especially ones that lived hundreds of million of years ago. It is simply a lucky break for organisms to even able to transfer from an aquatic environment to land.
Eryops, believed to be the first amphibian to be on land.
(Drawing by: Dmitry Bogdanov)
The next point basically confuses me. "Not every New England notch is the direct result of glacial carving." The example that Weidensaul uses is Smugglers' Notch in Vermont. She claims that the notch was created by the process of glacial melting, instead of an actual glacial carving. Simply, the writer is contradicting herself by saying that it is not caused by glaciers, but it is caused by water that is from glaciers.
Quechee Gorge, Vermont
(Photo by: Tom Brosnahan)
It is also hard to believe that "life appears to have had an easier time dealing with the glacial maximum than with the balmy interglacial that followed." It is hard to believe that this actually happened. Main issue is that we need to take the human threat off of the planet in order to accurately predicting this. Especially since majority of animals in the modern society is going extinct because of human activity. But Weidensaul described several species of animal that is no longer on planet Earth. Some of these animals include species of mammoth/elephant, the saber-tooth tiger, and even the giant ground sloth.
Saber-Tooth Tiger
(Photo by: Unknown Author)
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