The Last Giant of Beringia

The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge

Contributors

By Dan O’Neill

On Sale
Apr 29, 2009
Page Count
240 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786738175

The intriguing theory of a land bridge periodically linking Siberia and Alaska during the coldest pulsations of the Ice Ages had been much debated since Jose de Acosta, a Spanish missionary working in Mexico and Peru, first proposed the idea of a connection between the continents in 1589. But proof of the land bridge – now named Beringia after eighteenth-century Danish explorer Vitus Bering – eluded scientists until an inquiring geologist named Dave Hopkins emerged from rural New England and set himself to the task of solving the mystery. Through the life story of Hopkins, The Last Giant of Beringia reveals the fascinating science detective story that at last confirmed the existence of the land bridge that served as the intercontinental migration route for such massive Ice Age beasts as woolly mammoths, steppe bison, giant stag-moose, dire wolves, short-faced bears, and saber-toothed cats – and for the first humans to enter the New World from Asia. After proving unambiguously that the land bridge existed, Hopkins went on to show that the Beringian landscape cannot have been the “polar desert” that many had claimed, but provided forage enough to sustain a diverse menagerie of Ice Age behemoths.

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$11.99 CAD

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  1. ebook $8.99 $11.99 CAD
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Dan O’Neill

About the Author

Dan O’Neill is the author of A Land Gone Lonesome and The Last Giant of Beringia. He was named Alaska Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society for The Firecracker Boys. He lives in Fairbanks, Alaska.

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