Ice Age
Ice Ages and Climate Change Scientists believe that over the past 2.8 billion years, immense layers of ice have covered the Earth. The ice age proposes a puzzle composed of the works and findings of dozens of scientists through history, each providing a crucial piece to the puzzle. Scientists who worked on the development of this puzzle ranged from Geologists, Astronomers, Physicists, and early Biologists whom ultimately proved the complexity of this expanding subject. Progressing from a hypothesis based on myths to factual evidence, the subject of ice ages has provided immense insight to past and current global climate change.
The oldest hypothesis is known to provide a tentative explanation for a possible ice age, which began with the discovery of preserved large bones and tusks found in Denmark in 1577. The discovery of these bones and archeological artifacts lead to an explanation rooted from the great Cyclops of Greek mythology. The Swiss explained this phenomenon with the belief that there were giants living in the Northern Sea of Denmark and the Baltic in a time when it was “very cold”. Assuming that the giants were children of a huge giant who ruled Scandinavia, the Swiss came to the conclusion that the huge giant died and caused sea levels to rise. When the sea levels rose, it made his children drown which is why they are now non-existent (Lister and Bahn 48). This explanation was conserved in Icelandic legends and is the earliest recorded hypothesis for the existence of an ice age.
Ancient beliefs of a flood that killed off giant animals came to fruition again because of scientific research from the early 19th century. Baron Georges Cuvier, a comparative anatomist in the early eighteen hundreds, brought forth the idea of extinction by looking at mammoth fossils and comparing them to elephants now. He realized by comparing these fossils that the mammoth was similar to the elephant but in contrast had many features that helped it survive in an extremely
The oldest hypothesis is known to provide a tentative explanation for a possible ice age, which began with the discovery of preserved large bones and tusks found in Denmark in 1577. The discovery of these bones and archeological artifacts lead to an explanation rooted from the great Cyclops of Greek mythology. The Swiss explained this phenomenon with the belief that there were giants living in the Northern Sea of Denmark and the Baltic in a time when it was “very cold”. Assuming that the giants were children of a huge giant who ruled Scandinavia, the Swiss came to the conclusion that the huge giant died and caused sea levels to rise. When the sea levels rose, it made his children drown which is why they are now non-existent (Lister and Bahn 48). This explanation was conserved in Icelandic legends and is the earliest recorded hypothesis for the existence of an ice age.
Ancient beliefs of a flood that killed off giant animals came to fruition again because of scientific research from the early 19th century. Baron Georges Cuvier, a comparative anatomist in the early eighteen hundreds, brought forth the idea of extinction by looking at mammoth fossils and comparing them to elephants now. He realized by comparing these fossils that the mammoth was similar to the elephant but in contrast had many features that helped it survive in an extremely
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