Throwback Thursday: The Father of Paleontology
This is Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier better known as simply George Cuvier. He was French naturalist and zoologist who is known for his work in comparative anatomy, specifically in regards to comparing fossils to living organisms. His work is considered the foundation of vertebrate paleontology because he expanded Linnaean taxonomy into phyla and included extinct animals.
In fact, he separated invertebrates and vertebrates which is a HUGE deal in biology. We've all learned the difference between those two major groups.
He also studied strata in the Paris basin Alexandre Brongniart which established the basic principles of biostratigraphy. They concluded that 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. This led to the law of faunal succession which states that fossils appear and disappear in specific sedimentary rock strata.
He named many famous prehistoric animals we know today such as the Mastodon,
Megatherium,
and Pterodactylus.
He also described Mosasaurus.
He was a big proponent of catastrophism, the idea that the Earth's geological features were shaped by sudden, violent events. He was very against evolution which was primarily proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire at the time.
A deep-rooted source of his opposition to the gradual transformation of species was his goal of creating an accurate taxonomy based on principles of comparative anatomy. (This is why Linnaean taxonomy doesn't work and is not used by paleontologists today).
He was the first person to propose extinction though. His primary evidence for his identifications of mammoths and mastodons as separate, extinct species was the structure of their jaws and teeth. His primary evidence that the Megatherium fossil had belonged to a massive sloth came from his comparison of its skull with those of extant sloth species.
Many famous naturalists opposed his extinction theory including Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. Unlike Cuvier, they didn't believe that extinction was a sudden process; they believed that like the Earth, animals collectively undergo gradual change as a species. This differed widely from Cuvier's theory, which seemed to propose that animal extinction was catastrophic.
We now know that both were right. Some extinctions are gradual while others are catastrophic. Just ask the dinosaurs.
He also speculated that there was a time when reptiles, not mammals were the dominant life forms on earth which was confirmed in the two decades following his death.
There's even more I can go into but for now, those are the big things he contributed to the science. Tune in tomorrow to learn about a well-known group of animals that appeared in the Ordovician Period. Fossilize you later!
