Georges Cuvier

Georges Cuvier was born on August 23, 1769 in Montbéliard, Doubs, Franche-Comté, France, where his protestant ancestors had lived since the time of the Reformation.¹ He was the son of Jean-Georges Cuvier. He died on May 13, 1832 in Paris, France, of cholera at age 62.¹

Georges Cuvier was also known as Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier.¹ He was a French naturalist and zoologist. Of humble working class origins, he belonged to a new class of self-made scholars who worked their way to the top of academe. 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 by comparing living animals with fossils. He is well known for establishing extinction as a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing the gradualistic evolutionary theories of Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. His most famous work is the Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). He died in Paris of cholera. In 1819, he was created a peer for the life in honor of his scientific contributions. Thereafter he was known as Baron Cuvier.¹ Georges Cuvier was also known as Johann Leopold Nicolaus Friedrich Kuefer.¹