The Animal Kingdom: Arranged After Its Organization, Forming a Natural History of Animals and an Introduction to Comparative Anatomy

Born in France, Georges Cuvier, paleontologist and zoologist was regarded as the founder of comparative anatomy. He had no formal scientific training. He studied at the military academy at Stuttgart in order to qualify for the French civil service. Cuvier worked as a tutor on the north coast of France while he waited for a civil service appointment. There, he became fascinated with the marine life that he saw on the beaches and began to study it. He dissected mollusks and fishes and made drawings of their various parts. Cuvier's understanding of anatomy and his drawings were so well-executed that he was offered a chair at the University of Paris in the Department of Comparative Anatomy. At the University of Paris, he began studying the great apes as a way of understanding human anatomy. As a result of his studies, he proposed the revolutionary idea that all life forms descended from a single species. His most notable theory of comparative anatomy was the correlation theory. Cuvier recognized that all body structures are related to one another. Thus, he concluded that a single organ or structure could be used to predict the form of the rest of the animal's parts. Because this concept provided the basis for future work in the reconstruction of fossils, Cuvier is credited with originating modern paleontological theory and method. Cuvier's work led him to reject theories of continuous evolution. He developed a theory whereby all evolutionary changes were caused by "cataclysmic" geological events, an idea that was disproved by Charles Darwin and later evolutionists. During later life, Cuvier was recognized by Napoleon as one of France's foremost thinkers. Napoleon conferred a baroncy on him (1819) and appointed Cuvier director of the Department of Education of France. As director, Cuvier made reforms and innovations in the French educational system and founded new universities.