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The Great Unknown tells, in words and pictures, the story of one of the most important turning points in the study of natural history. Two hundred years ago, Charles Willson Peale, founder of America's foremost natural history museum, heard that a number of large bones were found buried in a farm field in upstate New York. He journeyed there and, with great effort, excavated and eventually assembl... More

The Great Unknown tells, in words and pictures, the story of one of the most important turning points in the study of natural history. Two hundred years ago, Charles Willson Peale, founder of America's foremost natural history museum, heard that a number of large bones were found buried in a farm field in upstate New York. He journeyed there and, with great effort, excavated and eventually assembled the bones into an almost complete fossil skeleton, only the second in the world. It was the first skeleton ever assembled of what we now call a mastodon. The imposing mastadon skeleton was soon put on display in Peale's museum in Philadelphia. People came from all over to see the huge creature. Not only did Peale's curiosity and determination pave the way for future paleontologists, his discovery of the mastodon was pivotal in convincing the public of the reality of extinction.

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