Introduction: "Extinction at the KT Boundary" is the starting chapter to The Lost World. It describes alternative theories to mainstream concepts of evolution and reveals the survival of Ian Malcolm.
Plot[]
The novel begins discussing the concept of extinction and how Baron Georges Cuvier and Charles Darwin both helped prove the fact that animals had suddenly turn extinct in Earth's past, which ran contrary to mainstream beliefs at the time. Specifically with regards to dinosaurs, palaeontologists and other scholars argue over whether or not the extinction of the dinosaurs was a swift calamity that overwhelmed them swiftly such as an asteroid impact or if environmental changes or disease killed them off slowly. Mathematician Ian Malcolm, one of the survivors of the disaster on Isla Nublar in 1989, is giving a lecture at the Santa Fe Institute in August 1993. Malcolm postulates that a change in behavior signaled the end of the dinosaurs and states that its entirely possible that humanity could suffer a similar fate.
Trivia[]
- The KT or K-T Boundary separates the age of reptiles and the start of the age of mammals. KT stands for Cretaceous–Tertiary, with K is actually the traditional abbreviation for the Cretaceous period.
- It is increasingly known as the K–Pg or Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary.
- Luis Alvarez and his discovery of iridium is mentioned in this chapter.
- Prions are mentioned at the end of the chapter and are central to to the book or novel's plot.
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