It is hot and dry in California’s desert. Under a tent, scientists dig in the sand. They are looking for mammoths, giant elephant-like creatures. But the scientists are not looking for living mammoths. Mammoths died out about 4,000 years ago. These scientists are paleontologists. They study past life on Earth. They learn by looking at fossils, the hardened tracks or remains of animals. Paleontologists have studied fossils of mammoths found all over the world.
In Sound, the inhabitants of Mammoth Island learn how sound energy travels in waves. While herding their mammoths toward fresh pasture through a maze of canyons, someone sneezes and the sound reverberates, startling the timid mammoths and causing them to run away! A visiting inventor explains that sounds are caused by the movement of molecules -- what scientists refer to as vibrations. Thinking about how our ears translate vibrations into sound leads a bright young Islander, Olive, to create a primitive microphone.
