“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.”
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Georges Cuvier
Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier, known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding 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.
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politics · French paleontologist (1769–1832) · paleontologist · politician · zoologist · ornithologist · university teacher · professor · malacologist · ichthyologist · botanist · philosopher · also Georges Cuvier, G. L. Cuvier, G. Cuvier, Georges-Léopold-Chrêtien-Frédéric-Dagobert Baron Cuvier, Georges de Cuvier, Georges, Baron Cuvier
Born 23 August 1769 · Died 13 May 1832 · Q171969
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2026· 1 entry
2025· 1 entry
insider.si.edu: Georges Cuvier, zoologist a study in the history of evolution theory
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2016· 1 entry
PBS: Georges Cuvier:
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1832· 3 entries
Died 1832-05-13.
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Cuvier was Grand Master of the Protestant Faculties of Theology of the French University
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“Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe.”
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1830· 1 entry
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
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1826· 3 entries
Awarded Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (1826).
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Cuvier published a revised version under the name, Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe (Discourse on the upheavals of the surface of the globe)
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Was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour; he subsequently was appointed president of the council of state
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1821· 3 entries
Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (1821).
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And in book form in 1825, with the title Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du Globe
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And 1825); and Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe (Paris, 1825)
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1820· 1 entry
Awarded Officer of the Legion of Honour (1820).
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1819· 2 entries
Was appointed president of the committee of the interior, an office he retained until his death
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Was created a peer for life in honour of his scientific contributions
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1818· 2 entries
Where he later served as a vice president
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Career landmark: seat 35 of the Académie française (1818–1832).
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1815· 1 entry
While Baartman was very ill, Cuvier commissioned a nude painting of her
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1812· 2 entries
Cuvier made what the cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans called his "Rash dictum": he remarked that it was unlikely that any large animal remained undiscovered
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Became a correspondent for the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, and became a member in 1827
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1808· 4 entries
Career landmark: director of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (1808–1832).
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And the final version was published in 1811
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Cuvier identified a fossil found in Maastricht as a giant marine lizard, the first known mosasaur
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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 establis
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1806· 2 entries
Awarded Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1806).
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Became a foreign member of the Royal Society, and in 1812, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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1803· 1 entry
Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (1803).
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1802· 2 entries
Cuvier replaced him in office and the Chair changed its name to Chair of Comparative Anatomy
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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
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1801· 1 entry
Finally culminated in the publication of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, which contained descriptions of 5,000 species of fishes, and was a joint production with Achille Valenciennes
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1800· 2 entries
Under the title Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles
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And working only from a drawing, Cuvier was the first to correctly identify in print, a fossil found in Bavaria as a small flying reptile, which he named the Ptero-Dactyle in 1809, (later Latinized as Pterodactylus antiq
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1769· 1 entry
Born 1769-08-23.
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