0

It is from Crash Course World History. It is at 55 second. Here it goes:

The first European visitors to the Americas had never seen a tomato or a catfish; native americans had never seen a horse, and by making our planet biologically singular, the Columbian exchange completely remade the population of animals, particularly humans.

I cannot get from the context whether the presenter meant biologically very good or biologically less diverse.

Improve this question
2
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wels_catfish
    – TimR
    Commented May 30, 2018 at 18:18
  • 1
    "Dr. Ross MacPhee, Curator of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History, and colleagues, have dated the existence of woolly mammoths and horses in North America to as recent as 7,600 years ago. Had it not been for previous westward migration, over the 2 Bering Land Bridge, into northwestern Russia (Siberia) and Asia, the horse would have faced complete extinction. However, Equus survived and spread to all continents of the globe, except Australia and Antarctica." awionline.org/content/…
    – TimR
    Commented May 30, 2018 at 18:23

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

Singular, from single "One in number".

The human world before 1492 was divided into two parts: One with Tomatoes and Catfish, the other with Horses.

After 1492 the human world became one part. The presenter doesn't say if this was good or not.

Improve this answer
1

I would assume from the context that "singular" here means "united" or probably even "one", like in "two become one".

The idea here lies in merging two separates into a whole.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .