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Georges Cuvier

"Cuvier" redirects here. For other uses, see Cuvier (disambiguation).

Georges Cuvier

ForMemRS
Born
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier

(1769-08-23)23 August 1769
Montbéliard, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire
Died13 May 1832(1832-05-13) (aged 62)
Paris, Kingdom of France
NationalityFrench
Known forLe Règne Animal; establishing the fields of stratigraphy and comparative anatomy, and the principle of faunal succession in the fossil record; making extinction an accepted scientific phenomenon; opposing theories of evolution; popularizing catastrophism
Scientific career
FieldsNatural history, paleontology, anatomy
InstitutionsMuséum national d'histoire naturelle, Collège de France
Author abbrev. (botany)Cuvier
Author abbrev. (zoology)Cuvier

Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (French: [ʒɔʁʒ kyvje]), was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology".[1] Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils.

Cuvier's work is considered the foundation of vertebrate paleontology, and he expanded Linnaean taxonomy by grouping classes into phyla and incorporating both fossils and living species into the classification.[2] Cuvier is also known for establishing extinction as a fact—at the time, extinction was considered by many of Cuvier's contemporaries to be merely controversial speculation. In his Essay on the Theory of the Earth (1813) Cuvier proposed that now-extinct species had been wiped out by periodic catastrophic flooding events. In this way, Cuvier became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century.[3] His study of the strata of the Paris basin with Alexandre Brongniart established the basic principles of biostratigraphy.[4]

Among his other accomplishments, Cuvier established that elephant-like bones found in North America belonged to an extinct animal he later would name as a "mastodon", and that a large skeleton dug up in present-day Argentina was of Megatherium, a giant, prehistoric ground sloth.[5] He also established two ungulate genera from the Paris Basin named Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium based on fragmentary remains alone, although more complete remains were later uncovered. He named the pterosaur Pterodactylus, described (but did not discover or name) the aquatic reptile Mosasaurus, and was one of the first people to suggest the earth had been dominated by reptiles, rather than mammals, in prehistoric times.

Cuvier is also remembered for strongly opposing theories of evolution, which at the time (before Darwin's theory) were mainly proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Cuvier believed there was no evidence for evolution, but rather evidence for cyclical creations and destructions of life forms by global extinction events such as deluges. In 1830, Cuvier and Geoffroy engaged in a famous debate, which is said to exemplify the two major deviations in biological thinking at the time – whether animal structure was due to function or (evolutionary) morphology.[6] Cuvier supported function and rejected Lamarck's thinking.

Cuvier also conducted racial studies which provided part of the foundation for scientific racism, and published work on the supposed differences between racial groups' physical properties and mental abilities.[7] Cuvier subjected Sarah Baartman to examinations alongside other French naturalists during a period in which she was held captive in a state of neglect. Cuvier examined Baartman shortly before her death, and conducted a dissection following her death that disparagingly compared her physical features to those of monkeys.[8]

Cuvier's most famous work is Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). In 1819, he was created a peer for life in honour of his scientific contributions.[9] Thereafter, he was known as Baron Cuvier. He died in Paris during an epidemic of cholera. Some of Cuvier's most influential followers were Louis Agassiz on the continent and in the United States, and Richard Owen in Britain. His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

  1. ^ Reybrouck, David Van (2012). From Primitives to Primates: A History of Ethnographic and Primatological Analogies in the Study of Prehistory. Sidestone Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-90-8890-095-2.
  2. ^ Felipe Faria (2013). "Georges Cuvier et le premier paradigme de la paléontologie" [Georges Cuvier and the first paradigm of paleontology] (PDF). Revue de Paléobiologie (in French). 32 (2). ISSN 0253-6730.
  3. ^ Faria 2012, pp. 64–74
  4. ^ J., Bowler, Peter (2009). Evolution : the history of an idea (25th anniversary ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. pp. 112–113. ISBN 9780520261280. OCLC 426118505.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Babcock, Loren E. (18 March 2024). "Nomenclatural history of Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799 (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae)". ZooKeys (1195): 297–308. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1195.117999. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 10964019.
  6. ^ Appel, Toby (1987). The Cuvier-Geoffroy Debate: French Biology in the Decades Before Darwin. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504138-5.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jackson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Lee 1833