Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Born	August 23, 1769 Montbéliard
Died	May 13, 1832 Paris
Nationality	French
Fields	natural history, paleontology, anatomy
Institutions	Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Known for	establishing extinction, catastrophism, opposition to evolution, stratigraphy

Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 1769 ( MDCCLXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Montbéliard (archaic Mömpelgard is a commune in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. Anatomy (from the Greek anatomia, from ana separate apart from and temnein, to cut up cut open is a branch of Biology that is the consideration The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle ( MNHN) is the French national Museum of Natural history. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 Stratigraphy, a branch of Geology, studies rock layers and layering ( stratification) Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 1769 ( MDCCLXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods Zoology (from Greek ζῷον, zoon, "animal" + λόγος, " Logos " "knowledge" is the branch of He was the elder brother of Frédéric Cuvier (1773–1838), also a naturalist. Frédéric Cuvier ( June 28, 1773 &ndash July 24, 1838) was a French Zoologist. He was a major figure in scientific circles in Paris during the early 19th century, and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology by comparing living animals with fossils. Anatomy (from the Greek anatomia, from ana separate apart from and temnein, to cut up cut open is a branch of Biology that is the consideration Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. He is well known for establishing that extinction was a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing early evolutionary theories. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope His most famous work is the Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation (1817; translated into English as The Animal Kingdom). Year 1817 ( MDCCCXVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common He died in Paris of cholera. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious Gastroenteritis caused by the Bacterium

Life and scientific career

Portrait by Francois Andre Vincent, Whitfield Fine Art

Cuvier was born at Montbéliard (then Mömpelgard in the duchy of Württemberg) under the name of Johann Leopold Nicolaus Friedrich Kuefer (Küfer is German for cooper), the son of a retired officer on half-pay belonging to a Protestant family which had emigrated from the Jura mountains on the French-Swiss border as a consequence of religious persecution. François-André Vincent (1746&ndash1816 was a French neoclassical painter Clovis Whitfield is an art historian and art dealer based in London, where he runs Whitfield Fine Art Montbéliard (archaic Mömpelgard is a commune in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France Württemberg, formerly known as Wirtemberg, is an area and a former state in Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. Traditionally a cooper is someone who makes Wooden staved vessels of a conical form of greater length than breadth bound Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Jura Mountains are a small Mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of

The family followed the Lutheran tradition of work and religion. Early on, Georges Cuvier was given the works of Linnaeus and Buffon. Carl Linnaeus (Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as, May 23 new style (13 May old style 1707 who laid the foundations for Georges-Louis Leclerc fr Comte de Buffon ( September 7, 1707 April 16, 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician biologist Therefore it is not surprising that he showed a bent towards the investigation of natural phenomena. He was also noted for his studious habits and marvelous memory.

After spending four years at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart, where he received a pragmatic German education, he accepted the position of tutor in the cultivated family of the Comte d'Héricy in Normandy, who were in the habit of spending the summer near Fécamp. Hohe Karlsschule ( Carl's High School) was the strict Military academy founded by Karl Eugen Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart (ˈʃtʊtgaɐ̯t is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. Fécamp is a commune of the Seine-Maritime département, Upper Normandy in France. It thus came about that he made the acquaintance of the agriculturist A. H. Tessier, who was then living at Fécamp, and who wrote strongly in favour of his protégé to his friends in Paris — with the result that Cuvier, after corresponding with the well-known naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, was appointed in 1795, at the age of 26, as assistant to the professor of comparative anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire ( April 15, 1772 - June 19, 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the Anatomy of Organisms It is closely related to Evolutionary biology and Phylogeny The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle ( MNHN) is the French national Museum of Natural history.

illustration of an Indian elephant jaw and a mammoth jaw from Cuvier's 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants

The Institut de France was founded in the same year, and he was elected a member of its Academy of Sciences. The Institut de France (French Institute is a French Learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is probably the Académie The French Academy of Sciences ( French: Académie des sciences) is a Learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the In 1796 he began to lecture at the École Centrale du Pantheon, and at the opening of the National Institute in April, he read his first palaeontological paper, which was subsequently published in 1800 under the title Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles. In this paper he analyzed skeletal remains of Indian and African elephants as well as mammoth fossils, and a fossil skeleton known at that time as the 'Ohio animal'. Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. A mammoth is any Species of the Extinct Genus Mammuthus. These Proboscideans are members of the elephant family and FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. Cuvier's analysis established, for the first time, the fact that African and Indian elephants were different species and that mammoths were not the same species as either African or Indian elephants and therefore must be extinct. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa. He further stated that the 'Ohio animal' represented another extinct species that was even more different from living elephants than mammoths were. Years later, in 1806, he would return to the 'Ohio animal' in another paper and give it the name mastodon. Mastodons or Mastodonts (from Greek μαστός and οδούς, meaning " Nipple tooth" are members of the extinct

In his 2nd paper in the year 1796, he would describe and analyze a large skeleton found in Paraguay, which he would name megatherium. Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay ( Spanish: República del Paraguay; Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái) is one of the only Megatherium ("Great Beast" was a Genus of Elephant -sized Ground sloths that lived from two million to 8000 years ago He concluded that this skeleton represented yet another extinct animal and, by comparing its skull with living species of tree dwelling sloths, that it was a kind of ground dwelling giant sloth. Ground sloths are a diverse group of Extinct Sloths Mammals in the edentate Superorder Xenarthra. Together these two 1796 papers were a landmark event in the history of paleontology and in the development of comparative anatomy as well. The history of Paleontology traces the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the Fossil record left behind by living organisms Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the Anatomy of Organisms It is closely related to Evolutionary biology and Phylogeny They also greatly enhanced Cuvier's personal reputation, and they essentially ended what had been a long running debate about the reality of extinction. In Biology and Ecology, extinction is the cessation of existence of a Species or group of taxa.

In 1799 he succeeded Daubenton as professor of natural history in the College de France. Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton (May 29 1716 &ndash January 1 1800 was a French naturalist. The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment ( Grand établissement) located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement In 1802 he became titular professor at the Jardin des Plantes; and in the same year he was appointed commissary of the Institute to accompany the inspectors general of public instruction. The Jardin des Plantes is the main Botanical garden in France. In this latter capacity he visited the south of France; but in the early part of 1803, he was chosen Permanent Secretary of the Department of Physical Sciences of the Academy, and he consequently abandoned the earlier appointment and returned to Paris. In 1806, he became a foreign member of the Royal Society. The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a Learned society for science that was founded in 1660

He now devoted himself more especially to three lines of inquiry: (i) the structure and classification of the Mollusca; (ii) the comparative anatomy and systematic arrangement of the fishes; (iii) fossil mammals and reptiles and, secondarily, the osteology of living forms belonging to the same groups. Osteology is the scientific study of Bones. A Subdiscipline of Anthropology and Archeology, osteology is a detailed study

According to Sander Gilman's essay "Black Bodies, White Bodies: Toward an Iconography of Female Sexuality in Late Nineteenth-Century Art, Medicine, and Literature," when the deceased Saartjie Baartman (1789-1815), the so-called "Hottentot Venus," was exhibited in Paris after being displayed to the curiosity of the public in London, Cuvier and others scientists examined her. Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman ( 1789 &ndash December 29, 1815) was the most famous of at least two Khoikhoi women who were exhibited Georges Curvier presented Baartman's dissected labia before the Academie Royale de Medecine, in order to allow them "to see the nature of the labia. " Curvier and his contemporaries concluded that Baartman's genitalia was physical proof of the African women's "primitive sexual appetite. " Baartman's genitalia continued to be exhibited at La Musée de l'Homme, the institution to which Curvier belonged, long after her death.

In 1821, Cuvier made what has been called his "Rash Dictum": he remarked that it was unlikely that any large animal remained undiscovered. In common law legal terminology a dictum (plural dicta) is any statement that forms a part of the Judgment of a court in particular a court whose decisions have value Many such discoveries have been made since Cuvier's statement.

Scientific ideas and their impact

Extinction

At the time Cuvier presented his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants, it was still widely believed that no species of animal had ever become extinct, because God's creation had been perfect. Authorities such as Buffon had claimed that fossils found in Europe of animals such as the wooly rhinoceros and mammoth were remains of animals still living in the tropics (ie rhinoceros and elephants), which had shifted out of Europe and Asia as the earth became cooler. The woolly rhinoceros ( Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an Extinct species of Rhinoceros native to the northern Steppes of Eurasia Rhinoceros (raɪˈnɒsərəs often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of Odd-toed ungulates in the family Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. Cuvier's early work demonstrated conclusively that this was not the case. ^[1]

Catastrophism

Cuvier came to believe that most if not all the animal fossils he examined were remains of species that were now extinct. Near the end of his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants he said:

All of these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe.

This led Cuvier to become an active proponent of the geological school of thought called catastrophism that maintained that many of the geological features of the earth and the past history of life could be explained by catastrophic events that had caused the extinction of many species of animals. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope Over the course of his career Cuvier came to believe that there had not been a single catastrophe but several, resulting in a succession of different faunas. He wrote about these ideas many times, in particular he discussed them in great detail in the preliminary discourse (introduction) to a collection of his papers, Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes, on quadruped fossils published in 1812. Quadrupedalism (from Latin meaning "four legs" is a form of land animal locomotion using four legs. The 'Preliminary Discourse' became very well known and unauthorized (and in the case of English not entirely accurate) translations were made into English, German and Italian. In 1826 Cuvier would publish a revised version under the name Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe.

After Cuvier's death the catastrophic school of geological thought lost ground to uniformitarianism, as championed by Charles Lyell and others, which claimed that the geological features of the earth were best explained by currently observable forces, such as erosion and volcanism, acting gradually over an extended period of time. Uniformitarianism in the Philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the Sir Charles Lyell 1st Baronet, KT, FRS (14 November 1797 &ndash 22 February 1875 was a Scottish Lawyer, Geologist, and protagonist However, the increasing interest in the topic of mass extinction starting in the late 20th century has led to a resurgence of interest among historians of science and other scholars in this aspect of Cuvier's work. An extinction event (also known as mass extinction; extinction-level event, ELE is a sharp decrease in the number of Species in a relatively short period

Stratigraphy

Cuvier collaborated for several years with Alexandre Brongniart, an instructor at the Paris mining school, to produce a monograph on the geology of the region around Paris. Alexandre Brongniart (1770 &ndash 1847 was a French Chemist, Mineralogist, and Zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on They published a preliminary version in 1808 and the final version was published in 1811. In this monograph they identified charateristic fossils of different rock layers that they used to analyze the geological column, the ordered layers of sedimentary rock, of the Paris basin. They concluded that the layers had been laid down over an extended period during which there clearly had been faunal succession and that the area had been submerged under sea water at times and at other times under fresh water. The principle of faunal succession is based on the observation that sedimentary rock strata contain Fossilised flora and fauna, and that these Along with William Smith's work during the same period on a geological map of England, which also used characteristic fossils and the principle of faunal succession to correlate layers of sedimentary rock, the monograph helped establish the scientific discipline of stratigraphy. William Smith ( March 23 1769 &ndash August 28 1839) was an English Geologist, credited with creating the first nationwide Stratigraphy, a branch of Geology, studies rock layers and layering ( stratification) It was a major development in the history of paleontology and the history of geology. The history of Paleontology traces the effort to understand the history of life on Earth by studying the Fossil record left behind by living organisms The history of geology is concerned with the development of the natural science of geology ^[2]

Age of reptiles

In 1800, Cuvier was the first to correctly identify in print, working only from a drawing, a fossil found in Bavaria as a small flying reptile^[3], which he named the Ptero-Dactyle in 1809^[4] (later Latinized as Pterodactylus antiquus)--the first known member of the diverse order of pterosaurs. Pterodactylus (ˌtɛrəˈdæktɨləs TER-o-DACK-ti-lus) is a Genus of Pterosaur (the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile that For other meanings see Pterodactyl (disambiguation. Pterosaurs (ˈtɛrəsɔr from the Greek πτερόσαυρος pterosauros In 1808 Cuvier identified a fossil found in Maastricht as giant marine lizard, which he named Mosasaurus, the first known mosasaur. Maastricht ( Dutch; Limburgish and city dialect Mestreech; French: Maestricht or Maëstricht; Spanish: Mosasaurus (ˌmoʊzəˈsɔrəs ("lizard of the Meuse River " was a genus of Mosasaur, a carnivorous aquatic Lizard, somewhat resembling Mosasaurs (from Latin Mosa meaning the ' Meuse river ' in the Netherlands and Greek sauros meaning 'lizard' were serpentine marine Cuvier speculated that there had been a time when reptiles rather than mammals had been the dominant fauna. Reptiles, or members of the class Reptilia are air-breathing Cold-blooded Vertebrates that have skin covered in scales as opposed to hair or feathers Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands ^[5] This speculation was confirmed over the next two decades by a series of spectacular finds, mostly by English geologists and fossil collectors, who found and desribed the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dinosaurs. Ichthyosaurs ( Greek for 'fish lizard' - ιχθυς / ichthyos meaning 'fish' and σαυρος / sauros meaning 'lizard' were giant Plesiosaurs (ˈpliːziəˌsɔɹ ( Greek: plesios/πλησιος meaning 'near' or 'close to' and sauros/σαυρος meaning

Principle of correlation of parts

In a 1798 paper on the fossil remains of an animal found in some plaster quarries near Paris Cuvier wrote:

Today comparative anatomy has reached such a point of perfection that, after inspecting a single bone, one can often determine the class, and sometimes even the genus of the animal to which it belonged, above all if that bone belonged to the head or the limbs. . . . This is because the number, direction, and shape of the bones that compose each part of an animal's body are always in a necessary relation to all the other parts, in such a way that - up to a point - one can infer the whole from any one of them and vice versa.

This idea is sometimes referred to as 'Cuvier's principle of correlation of parts', and while Cuvier's description may somewhat exaggerate its power, the basic concept is central to comparative anatomy and paleontology.

Opposition to evolution

Cuvier was highly critical of evolutionary theories proposed by his contemporaries Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Chevalier de Lamarck ( August 1, 1744 &ndash December 18, 1829) was a French Soldier Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hillaire ( April 15, 1772 - June 19, 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle He was skeptical of the mechanisms of change that they proposed and his commitment to the principle of correlation of parts caused him to doubt that any mechanism could ever significantly modify any part of an animal in isolation from all the other parts, without rendering the animal unable to survive. In his Elegy of Lamarck, Cuvier noted that Lamarck’s theory rested on two shaky assumptions — that a nervous fluid exists with the power to mold organs and that use and disuse can effect changes in an organism’s body type:

"[Lamarck’s evolution] rested on two arbitrary suppositions; the one, that it is the seminal vapor which organizes the embryo; the other, that efforts and desires may engender organs. A system established on such foundations may amuse the imagination of a poet; a metaphysician may derive from it an entirely new series of systems; but it cannot for a moment bear the examination of any one who has dissected a hand, a viscus, or even a feather. "

He also pointed out that Napoleon's expedition to Egypt had retrieved animals mummified thousands of years previously that seemed no different from their modern counterparts. ^[6] "Certainly," Cuvier wrote, "one cannot detect any greater difference between these creatures and those we see, than between the human mummies and the skeletons of present-day men. "^[7] Lamarck dismissed this conclusion, arguing that evolution happened much too slowly to be observed over just a few thousand years. Cuvier, however, in turn criticized how Lamarck and other naturalists conveniently introduced hundreds of thousands of years "with a stroke of a pen" to uphold their theory. Instead, he argued that one can only judge what a long time would produce by multiplying what a lesser time produces. Since a lesser time produced no organic changes, neither, probably, would a much longer time. ^[8]

The harshness of his criticism and the strength of his reputation continued to discourage naturalists from speculating about the transmutation of species, right up until Darwin published The Origin of Species more than two decades after Cuvier's death. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in Scientific literature and arguably the ^[9]

Chief scientific work

On comparative anatomy and classification

In 1798 Cuvier published his first independent work, the Tableau élémentaire de l'Histoire naturelle des animaux, which was an abridgment of his course of lectures at the École du Pantheon, and may be regarded as the foundation and first statement of his natural classification of the animal kingdom.

In 1800 he published the Leçons d'anatomie comparée, assisted by A. M. C. Duméril for the first two volumes and Georges Louis Duvernoy for the three later ones. André Marie Constant Duméril (1774 - 1860 was a French Zoologist. Georges Louis Duvernoy ( August 6, 1777 - March 1, 1855) was a French Zoologist.

On molluscs

Cuvier's papers on the Mollusca began appearing as early as 1792, but most of his memoirs on this branch were published in the Annales du museum between 1802 and 1815; they were subsequently collected as Mémoires pour servir de l'histoire et a l'anatomie des mollusques, published in one volume at Paris in 1817.

On fish

Cuvier's researches on fish, begun in 1801, finally culminated in the publication of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, which contained descriptions of 5000 species of fishes, and was the joint production of Cuvier and A. Valenciennes. Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two Valenciennes (Old Dutch: Valencijn, Latin: Valentianae) is a Town and commune in northern France in the Cuvier's work on this project extended over the years 1828–1831.

On palaeontology and osteology

In this field Cuvier published a long list of memoirs, partly relating to the bones of extinct animals, and partly detailing the results of observations on the skeletons of living animals, specially examined with a view of throwing light upon the structure and affinities of the fossil forms.

Among living forms he published papers relating to the osteology of the Rhinoceros Indicus, the tapir, Hyrax Capensis, the hippopotamus, the sloths, the manatee, etc. Rhinoceros (raɪˈnɒsərəs often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of Odd-toed ungulates in the family Tapirs (ˈteɪpɚ as in "taper" or /təˈpɪər/ as "ta-pier" are large browsing Mammals, roughly pig-like in shape with short A hyrax (from Greek 'shrewmouse' Afrikaans: klipdassie, from Dutch: klipdas 'rockbadger' is any of four Species of fairly The hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius) from the Greek ἱπποπόταμος ( hippopotamos, ιππος hippos meaning "horse" The living sloths comprise six Species of medium-sized Mammals that live in Central and South America belonging to the families Manatees ( family Trichechidae, Genus Trichechus) are large fully aquatic Marine mammals sometimes known as sea

He produced an even larger body of work on fossils, dealing with the extinct mammals of the Eocene beds of Montmartre, the fossil species of hippopotamus, a marsupial (which he called Didelphys gypsorum), the Megalonyx, the Megatherium, the cave-hyena, the pterodactyl, the extinct species of rhinoceros, the cave bear, the mastodon, the extinct species of elephant, fossil species of manatee and seals, fossil forms of crocodilians, chelonians, fishes, birds, etc. The Eocene epoch (558 ± 02 - 339 ± 01 Ma) is a major division of the Geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in Montmartre is a hill (the butte Montmartre) which is 130 metres high giving its name to the surrounding district in the north of Paris in the 18th The hippopotamus ( Hippopotamus amphibius) from the Greek ἱπποπόταμος ( hippopotamos, ιππος hippos meaning "horse" Marsupials are an Infraclass of Mammals characterized by a distinctive pouch (called the marsupium) in which females carry their young through Ground sloths are a diverse group of Extinct Sloths Mammals in the edentate Superorder Xenarthra. Megatherium ("Great Beast" was a Genus of Elephant -sized Ground sloths that lived from two million to 8000 years ago The Hyaenidae is a Mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family native to both African and Asian continents consists of four Pterodactylus (ˌtɛrəˈdæktɨləs TER-o-DACK-ti-lus) is a Genus of Pterosaur (the first to be named and identified as a flying reptile that Rhinoceros (raɪˈnɒsərəs often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of Odd-toed ungulates in the family The Cave Bear ( Ursus spelaeus) was a Species of Bear which lived in Europe during the Pleistocene and became extinct at Mastodons or Mastodonts (from Greek μαστός and οδούς, meaning " Nipple tooth" are members of the extinct Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. FOSSIL is a standard protocol for allowing serial communication for Telecommunications programs under the DOS Operating system. Pinnipeds ("fin-feet" lit "winged feet" or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine Mammals comprising A crocodile is any Species belonging to the family Crocodylidae (sometimes classified instead as the Subfamily Crocodylinae) Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. The department of palaeontology dealing with the Mammalia may be said to have been essentially created and established by Cuvier. Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands

The results of Cuvier's principal palaeontological and geological investigations were ultimately given to the world in the form of two separate works: Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes (Paris, 1812; later editions in 1821 and 1825); and Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe (Paris, 1825). In this latter work he expounded a scientific theory of Catastrophism. Catastrophism is the idea that Earth has been affected in the distant past by sudden short-lived violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope

The Animal Kingdom

None of Cuvier's works attained a higher reputation than his Règne Animal distribué d'après son Organisation pour servir de base à l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux et d'Introduction à l'Anatomie Comparée, the first edition of which appeared in four octavo volumes in 1817, and the second in five volumes in 1829–1830. In this classic work Cuvier embodied the results of the whole of his previous researches on the structure of living and fossil animals. The whole of the work was his own, with the exception of the section on Insecta, in which he was assisted by his friend Latreille. Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described Pierre André Latreille ( November 20, 1762 - February 6, 1833) was a French entomologist. It was translated into English many times, often with substantial notes and supplementary material updating the book in accordance with the expansion of knowledge.

Memorial bust by David d'Angers, 1833

Official and public work

Apart from his own original investigations in zoology and paleontology Cuvier carried out a vast amount of work as perpetual secretary of the National Institute, and as an official connected with public education generally; and much of this work appeared ultimately in a published form. Pierre-Jean David ( March 12, 1788 - January 4, 1856) usually called David d'Angers, was a French sculptor Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. Thus, in 1808 he was placed by Napoleon upon the council of the Imperial University, and in this capacity he presided (in the years 1809, 1811 and 1813) over commissions charged to examine the state of the higher educational establishments in the districts beyond the Alps and the Rhine which had been annexed to France, and to report upon the means by which these could be affiliated with the central university. Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. The title Imperial university should literally denote a university established under an Empire, however many universities have adopted the title simply to add a sense of prestige The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge Three separate reports on this subject were published by him.

In his capacity, again, of perpetual secretary of the Institute, he not only prepared a number of éloges historiques on deceased members of the Academy of Sciences, but he was the author of a number of reports on the history of the physical and natural sciences, the most important of these being the Rapport historique sur le progrès des sciences physiques depuis 1789, published in 1810.

Prior to the fall of Napoleon (1814) he had been admitted to the council of state, and his position remained unaffected by the restoration of the Bourbons. The House of Bourbon is an important European Royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty. He was elected chancellor of the university, in which capacity he acted as interim president of the council of public instruction, whilst he also, as a Lutheran, superintended the faculty of Protestant theology. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther In 1819 he was appointed president of the committee of the interior, and retained the office until his death.

In 1826 he was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour; and in 1831 he was raised by Louis Philippe to the rank of peer of France, and was subsequently appointed president of the council of state. Louis Philippe ( 6 October 1773 &ndash 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the Peerage of France (Pairie de France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. Member of the Doctrinaires, he was nominated to the ministry of the interior in the beginning of 1832. Doctrinaires was the name given during the Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830 to the little group of French Royalists who hoped to reconcile the

Animals named after Cuvier

Cuvier is commemorated in the naming of many animals; they include Cuvier's beaked whale, Cuvier's Gazelle, Cuvier's toucan, Cuvier's Bichir, Galeocerdo cuvieri (tiger shark), and Anolis cuvieri, a lizard from Puerto Rico. Cuvier's Beaked Whale, Ziphius cavirostris is the most widely distributed of all the Beaked whales It is the only member of the Genus Ziphius Cuvier's Gazelle Gazella cuvieri is a species of Gazelle from northern Africa. The White-throated Toucan ( Ramphastos tucanus) is a Near-passerine Bird found throughout the Amazon in south-eastern Colombia, eastern The gray bichir, Polypterus senegalus, also known as the Senegal bichir and Cuvier's bichir, is sometimes called the dinosaur eel at many The tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier, the fourth largest predatory Shark (after the Great white shark, Greenland shark, and Pacific Anolis is a Genus of Lizards belonging to the family Iguanidae. There are also some extinct animals named after Cuvier, such as the South American giant sloth Catonyx cuvieri.

Notes

References

External links

• Berkeley Biography
• Victorian Web Bio
• Infoscience
• English translation of Discourses
• Cuvier's principle of the correlation of parts
• Cuvier's Elegy of Lamarck
• English translation of Règne animal

See also

• Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus" which Cuvier examined
• History of paleontology for more on the impact of Cuvier's scientific ideas