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1. What were Wunderkammer and when were they popular?

Wunderkammer were Cabinets of Curiosities. They were popular in the sixteenth century. It was a type of collection often kept in ornate wooden cases. People were expected to pick up and handle the objects in the cases. The objects in the cases were not organized or classified. Some things in the cabinets might include pieces of coral, fossils, ethnographic artifacts, mirrors, preserved specimens of birds and fish, insects, rocks, or feathers.

2. Why does the author believe that science and literature are needed to document extinctions?

Both science and literature are needed to document extinctions. Science is needed to establish the rate and scale of declines. To figure out why they are occurring and what mitigation strategies might be used. Literature is needed to communicate what the losses mean. It is one thing to show the statistical facts about a species' decline. It is another to communicate what the species is, what the loss means, and the beauty of the creature. Literature can teach the value of things so that more people will fight to save them.

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