Mammoths and Patagonians: From Species to Race in Buffon's America

In the mid-eighteenth century, using morphological criteria based in paleontology, French naturalist Comte George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon modified his definition of species by replacing the precise criterion of inbreeding with criteria such as size; eg, this understanding served to definitively classify mammoths as a variety distinct from elephants. This "discovery," ran counter to the idea, to which Buffon had previously adhered, that large species (including humankind) do not change. It also affected the idea of human variety: were the giant Patagonians distinct from ordinary humans? In time, becoming synonymous with subspecies, the idea of variety paved the way for the idea of race. 10 References. Adapted from the source document.