“Animals have been the protagonists of at least half of world history.”
We've only known 'half' of history so far.
Summoning animals marginalized throughout history

*** Highly recommended by Director Lee Jeong-mo, Writer Kwak Jae-sik, Dr. Lee Won-young, and Reporter Nam Jong-young!
*** An exclusive “Encyclopedia of Animal World History” featuring 200 colorful, high-quality images.

“If you examine each of the 100 animals, the history of the world will soon fit together like a puzzle.”
_Lee Jeong-mo, former director of the National Gwacheon Science Museum

“It maintains a warm perspective on animals while also providing sharp insights based on cutting-edge science.”
_Writer Kwak Jae-sik

Charles Darwin said this:
“The difference between humans and animals is great, but it is a quantitative difference, not a qualitative difference.” (The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection) For a long time, we thought that there was a ‘qualitative difference’ between humans and animals.
Humans and animals were defined as superior-inferior, dominant-subordinate, human-nonhuman, and animals were treated as inferior beings.
This is reflected in our view of history, which has consciously (or unconsciously) marginalized animals in world history.
But we humans are ultimately animals, just like dogs, cats, cows, fish, bees, and ticks.
Humans are vertebrates, mammals, and primates.
It is an ape that shares more than 98 percent of its DNA with chimpanzees.
Humans and animals are equal.


Now we must write a new history.
We must break away from a human-centered history.
History is inseparable from the 'non-human' animals that coexist on Earth.
Animals have been the main characters in at least half of world history.
This book boldly overturns the old dichotomous view of history that distinguishes between 'humans' and 'non-humans.'
The author has carefully selected 100 animals that have had a major impact on world history.
From Tyrannosaurus and Archaeopteryx to cockroaches and earthworms, we are bringing back to life the protagonists of history that we have neglected.
As you examine each of the 100 animals, world history will soon fit together like a puzzle.
Readers of this book will gain a new perspective on the animals that have coexisted with humans throughout history.
Moreover, we will have a valuable opportunity to explore ways to coexist with animals on Earth in the future.

The author, a former senior reporter for The Times of London, presents a uniquely warm perspective on each animal species in each of the 100 chapters, while also providing sharp insights based on the latest science.
As expected from a veteran reporter, his writing style stands out with its vivid sense of the scene and witty wit.
The knowledge and information covered are vast, spanning a total of 728 pages.
It achieves a grand integration of knowledge across the humanities and natural sciences.
It can be said to be a truly unique “encyclopedia of animal world history.”
It includes 200 colorful, high-quality images, adding to the visual pleasure of 'reading' the book.
For readers interested in animals and history, the environment and ecology, anthropology, and evolution, this book will be an excellent reference that they will want to read whenever they need it.

We tend to think of lions as having significance only in the distant past of our species.
Before agriculture began, before humans settled down, before civilization began.
A look at the historical distribution of lions reveals that this idea is a prejudice.
Lions were once wild beasts that lived in 'Europe'.
Surprisingly, lions were seen in Spain, France, Italy and Greece.
European lions lived in the Caucasus Mountains until the 10th century.
Lions have already been found in Turkey and across Asia, down to India.
The fact that lions have retreated from their habitat also means that humans have encroached on their habitat.

---From "001 Lion"

Corals are the largest builders in the animal kingdom.
The range and breadth of coral far exceeds that of humans.
The largest coral reef on Earth is the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia, stretching 2,300 kilometers.
It is famous for being visible from space.
The Great Barrier Reef consists of approximately 2,900 coral reef communities spread over an area of ​​344,400 square kilometers.
A fierce competition to build the tallest building took place around the world, a competition that Freud would have dismissed as a foolish competition driven by the Oedipus complex.
But humanity's efforts to show off its best architecture pale in comparison to the works of animals the size of a little finger.

---From "009 Coral"

The first Tyrannosaurus teeth were discovered in North America in 1874.
The vertebrae were discovered in 1892.
In 1900, paleontologist Barnum Brown discovered part of the skeleton in eastern Wyoming, and in 1902, he discovered it in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana (a Late Cretaceous and Paleocene formation in the western United States).
Another skeleton part was discovered in the last layer of the dinosaur era.
The fossil was named Tyrannosaurus in 1905.
This name is an achievement that reveals genius creativity.
The person who gave it its name was Henry Fairfield Osborn, a paleontologist and director of the American Museum of Natural History.
The mystery emanating from the dinosaur's name is also part of its charm.
All dinosaurs are known by their scientific names.
There is no common name that can be used to refer to dinosaurs.
The scientific name for the sparrow is Passer domesticus, but most people don't say that name.
However, the scientific name Tyrannosaurus rex is the name that everyone, whether scientists or ordinary people, calls it.
This difficult Latin comes out naturally.
It means 'King of Tyrant Lizards'.
---From "013 Tyrannosaurus"

So, what was the first animal humans willingly brought into their homes? The wolf.
We filled our homes and lives with wolves.
As a single species, the wolf is probably the most beloved animal on Earth by humans (see Chapter 21).
All domestic dogs are animals whose ancestors are wolves.
The scientific name for the wolf is Canis lupus.
The domestic dog is usually called Canis lupus familiaris, meaning 'friendly wolf'.
It's a somewhat different type of wolf.
We hug the wolf, let him lick us, and encourage the children to play together.
As a result, the domestic dog became the most widely distributed terrestrial carnivore on Earth (which means it is classified as a carnivore rather than a meat-eater).
Some consider the house dog to be the first domesticated animal.
There's a wolf over there.
Let's try growing it at home!
---From "033"

There is one animal that we look at while maintaining this fundamental contradiction.
It's a camel.
Camels are seen as ships of the desert, creatures optimized for moving through arid regions, but also as monsters created when too many sailors take the ship to the mountains, a clumsy and careless failure of nature.
Again, the truth is that evolution does not pursue perfection.
The idea that evolution progresses toward perfection is false.
Anyone who suffers from back pain due to walking with both feet on the ground with their soles pressed against the ground can easily understand this truth.
Evolution does not tend toward perfection, but it does not produce hopeless creatures either.
Evolution, as we have seen, is the process of producing life forms with the capacity to produce offspring.
Why haven't humans adapted to develop immunity to cancer? If they had, we'd be on the right track to perfection.
However, cancer is a disease that mostly strikes after a woman is old enough to have children.
Therefore, immunity to cancer is not a factor considered by natural selection.
This is the reality of evolution.

---From "035 Camel"

We've also learned quite a bit from captive chimpanzees.
The notion that language is a means of demonstrating human uniqueness has also been called into question by chimpanzees.
First, a chimpanzee named Washoe learned English sign language.
He has acquired at least 340 sign language words, some of which he has taught to his adopted son, Louis.
As soon as Warshaw saw the swan, he used sign language for "water" and then signed for "bird."
When I put the doll in Washo's glass of water, he started putting words together almost to form sentences.
The expression was 'baby in a cup'.
Another time, Warshaw said in sign language:
“You go out,” he said, signing to Warshaw, “Okay, but get dressed.”
Then the guy immediately put on his jacket.
One of Warshaw's teachers suffered a miscarriage and was unable to attend class for some time.
The teacher returned and informed Washoe in sign language.
“Our baby is dead.” Then Washoe signed the word for “cry.”
Then I traced the tear stains on the teacher's face with my hand.
This is a miraculous empathy that transcends the species.
Because chimpanzees don't cry.

---From "042 Chimpanzee"

Because language has been so important to humanity, word-related vocabulary is hidden like fossils throughout English expressions.
For example, it is like this.
“After doing the groundwork, I will take a breather.
If he is not too long in the tooth (the word "old" comes from the fact that as a horse ages, its gums recede, making its teeth appear longer - translator's note) and does not get winded (get the wind up), he will put someone through his paces (put someone through his paces - translator's note), and then he will have completely achieved his goal (home and dry).
I am sure that if he gets the bit between his teeth, he will be full of beans.
“I could give you more examples, but there’s no use in fumbling with a dead horse.”
---From "050 Words"

Hunting and gathering sustained early humans for countless centuries, but as civilization developed, we increasingly moved away from these activities.
Crops and livestock provided the wealthy with all their nutritional needs.
At this point, it became clear to everyone what had to be done.
It became clear what those with wealth and power should do.
It was hunting, of course.
Of all the animals a hunter could catch, the deer was by far the best.
It was also important to show the hunter's masculinity and nobility by catching a stag wearing a crown proudly.
The progress of civilization is ultimately a story of hunting.
Hunting for fun, not for necessity, hunting for social life, for exercise and display, hunting to display wealth and social status.
The primitive hunting that humans did to survive has now become a tool to show how truly civilized they are.

---From "084 Deer"

Beavers' earthworks also help humans manage water.
The traditional thinking about water management is to get rid of water as quickly as possible.
The key is to dredge rivers and create canals to allow rainwater to flow more quickly into the sea.
These measures cause flooding in vulnerable downstream areas and lead to water shortages during droughts.
Beavers released into a protected area in Devon, England, and closely monitored, have shown that their habitats help release more water during droughts and retain more water during floods.
Re-established forests upstream absorb water and release it slowly, reducing the risk of flooding downstream.
These systems work much better when beavers live in the reservoir.
---From "091 Beaver"

Climate change is not a new phenomenon.
Rapid climate change has occurred on Earth in the past.
The best example can be found in the Early Permian.
A series of volcanic eruptions (or meteor impacts) in Siberia 251 million years ago released carbon dioxide and methane.
This is a greenhouse gas.
As a result, the rainforests were completely destroyed, their beneficial effects were lost, and the soils where they once stood were weathered.
The ocean has lost its oxygen.
96 percent of all species that ever lived on Earth have gone extinct.
The good news is that the Earth is recovering.
The bad news is that it took 20 million years to recover.
So the polar bear of the 21st century is worth paying attention to.
The polar bear continues to swim in search of an island that is nowhere to be found.
We are all heading there.
Now I really have to do something.
Unlike the creatures living on Earth at the time of the Permian extinction event, we have a choice.
Whether or not we experience mass extinction today rests in our hands.
The very beginning of extinction itself began with us.
We can prevent extinction.
Conversely, it may cause extinction.
Greta Thunberg, a teenage Earth activist, put it simply:
“We still have time to turn everything around.
…but that short time will not last forever.”

---From "100 Polar Bears"