Couvier, Georges

1. Entity type Person
2. Name in other language Couvier, George (en)
3. Birth date 23 August 1769
4. Death date 13 May 1832
5. Birth place Montbéliard, County of Montbéliard, Holy Roman Empire
6. Death place Paris
7. Gender Name Female
8. Biographical Data

   1. Georges Cuvier was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "father of paleontology". 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. 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 was interpreted to have proposed that new species were created after periodic catastrophic floods. In this way, Cuvier became the most influential proponent of catastophism in geology in the early 19th century. 

       Among his other accomplishments, Cuvier established that elephant-like bones found in the USA belonged to an extinct animal 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 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.

      His most famous work is Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). In 1819, he became a peer for life in honor of his scientific contributions. He died in Paris during an epidemic of cholera. 

       

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