MAMMOTH

THE RESURRECTION OF AN ICE AGE GIANT

By Richard Stone

Brand new and unread. A mint new hardback in dust-wrapper.

(2001) 2002 1st UK edition. 8vo (142 x 197mm). Ppxiv,242. B/w photograph plates, title-page line drawings. White boards, spine titled in silver-gilt.

FREE UK DELIVERY.

International delivery available to most countries.

Any questions please ask.

__________________

"No creature from the fabled Pleistocene Era holds a more powerful place in the popular imagination than the woolly mammoth. Cave paintings of the giant beasts hint at the profound role they played in early human culture - our Ice Age ancestors built igloo-shaped huts out of mammoth bones and even feasted on mammoth tongues. Eager to uncover more clues to this mystical prehistoric age, explorers since the time of Peter the Great have joined in the great hunt for mammoth remains. Now a new generation of explorers has taken to the tundra. Armed with global positioning satellites, ground-penetrating radar and Soviet-era military helicopters, they are after an elusive prize: a mammoth carcass that will help determine how the creature lived, how it died - and how it might be brought back to life. In this adventure-filled narrative, science writer Richard Stone follows two teams of explorers - one Russian / Japanese, the other a French-led consortium - as they battle with bitter cold, high winds, supply shortages and the deeply rooted superstitions of indigenous peoples who fear the consequences of awakening the 'rat beneath the ice'. From St Petersburg to the Arctic Circle, from the North Sea to high-tech Japanese laboratories, winds the sometimes surreal quest of these fanatical explorers and pioneering scientists, whose work could well rewrite our planet's evolutionary history. A riveting tale of high-stakes adventure and scientific hubris, Mammoth is also an intellectual voyage through uncharted moral terrain, as we confront the promise and peril of resurrecting creatures from the deep past." (Publisher's blurb).

Contents include:- Acknowledgements; Raising the dead; Treasure of the Wooden Hills; First design of the Kobe steak; River of bones; The rat beneath the ice; A deadly chill; Killer wave of the New World; Nastier than Ebola; The big lift; The DNA menagerie; Pleistocene Park; Into the ice cave; Epilogue; Suggested readings; Index.