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Franklin and others compared the mastodon’s features with similar fossils and living animals around the world. With this information, these natural philosophers proposed that the animal was "extinct". Identifying fossils as those of extinct animals undermined the classical and medieval concept of the universe known as 'The Great Chain of Being'.
Thus, the mastodon tooth from Franklin’s property represents the scientific story of fossil mastodon bones in Franklin’s life – and Franklin’s world. This specimen represents a time when society’s basic values and beliefs were being restructured by Enlightenment ideas, and the tooth is physical evidence of Franklin’s role in transforming the prevailing view of the world.
Benjamin Franklin's Mastodon Tooth
By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Guide
The Great Chain of Being
1579 drawing of the Great Chain of Being from Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana
In the public domain
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- Artifact Spotlight: Benjamin Franklin and the Mastodon Tooth
- Ancient Mastodons and the Enlightenment
- Ancient Elephants and 18th Century Rationalists
- The Great Chain of Being
- Natural History and American Independence
- Benjamin Franklin's 300th Birthday
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