From Bizarre Beasts.
Ancient texts described silphium as a remedy for everything from tetanus to tooth ache, and a delicacy – it could do it all and was prized around the Mediterranean world. But by the end of the first century CE, it was gone. This plant has the dubious honor of being the first extinction in recorded history… or does it?
Endlings portrait illustrations are by Zoe Keller. You can find out more about her and her work here: https://www.zoekeller.com/
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Sources:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Laserpitium#
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/cyrenaica
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D19%3Achapter%3D15
https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/silphium-mystery
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/conservation-science/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2021.785962/full
https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/10/1/102
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/miracle-plant-eaten-extinction-2000-years-ago-silphion
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2252/theophrastus-and-pliny-the-elder-on-silphium/
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/5/2/51
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_EH-p697-3-Cyr
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thapsia
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tingis#:~:text=(Classical%20Latin)%20IPA:%20%5B,IPA:%20%5B%CB%88t%CC%AAin%CC%A0%CA%B2.d%CD%A1%CA%92is%5D
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/asafoetida
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/cyrene
https://www.britannica.com/science/desertification
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/82253
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-history-of-evolutionary-thought/1800s/extinctions-georges-cuvier/
https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/georges-cuvier-1769-1832
https://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/did-big-bone-lick-georges-cuvier.php
https://www.vox.com/2015/4/13/8384167/thomas-jefferson-mastodons
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/species-extinction/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferula_distribution_map.svg
https://www.gbif.org/species/8048981
https://www.gbif.org/species/3636208
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Images:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LYq45ROw0ooRJtzB5xhWM14psRKycJrjIMGhW8soiWY/edit?tab=t.0
