Georges Cuvier is a great zoologist, founder of comparative animal anatomy and paleontology. This man is striking in his desire to study the world around him, and despite some erroneous views, he has made a significant contribution to the development of science.
Childhood of a scientist
Cuvier was born on August 23, 1769 in Montbéliard, France. Little George was smart beyond his years: already at the age of 4 he read well, and his mother taught him to draw. The ability to paint was also useful to the scientist in his work on paleontology, where he drew illustrations for books by hand. These illustrations were then copied for a long time to other printed publications, as they were made with high quality and believable.
Georges Leopold Cuvier lived in a poor Protestant family. His father was already aged, served in the French army as a soldier, and his mother devoted her life to her son. She worked with him, and also raised him to his feet after another illness (Cuvier often fell ill in childhood).
Education
The school years of the future scientist passed quickly. Georges Cuvier showed himself to be a talented student, but hehad a rebellious nature. It was originally planned that the boy would continue his studies at the theological school and receive the title of pastor, but strained relations with the director did not allow him to become a priest of the Protestant church.
Further education Georges Cuvier received at the Karolinska Academy at the Faculty of Cameral Sciences (state property management). Here, in Stuttgart, the scientist studied hygiene, law, national economy and finance. Already at the university, he was fond of the animal world, so the “Academy” circle was organized with his participation. This association lasted 4 years - so much Georges studied at the faculty. The members of the circle shared their small achievements in the study of nature, prepared speeches. Those who distinguished themselves were awarded an impromptu medal made of cardboard with the image of Lamarck.
Georges Cuvier - biography of a scientist at the crossroads of life's path
Four years of student life flew by unnoticed, and Georges returned home to his parents. His father had already retired, his mother did not work. As a result, the family budget was practically empty, which, of course, could not be ignored.
Then the scientist heard rumors that Count Erisi of Normandy was looking for a home tutor for his son. Being an educated man, Georges Cuvier packed his bags and went to work. The house of the famous count was located on the seashore, and this made it possible for Georges to see marine life not only on paper, but also live. He boldly opened starfish, sea worms, fish, crabs and crayfish, shellfish. Then Georges Cuvier was surprised how difficultthe structure of seemingly simple living organisms. Numerous vessels, nerves, glands and organ systems simply amazed the scientist. His work with marine animals has been featured in the journal Zoological Bulletin.
First research in paleontology
The end of the 18th century is the birth of paleontology. Cuvier, as the founder of this science, made a great contribution to its development. His first experience is connected with the case when he received a package with the bones of a creature found in Maastricht. Hoffan (that was the name of the resident of this city who found the remains) decided to send the skeleton to the then already famous Cuvier in Paris. The “miner” himself claimed that these could be whale bones. In turn, many scientists found similarities with the skeleton of a crocodile, and the Maastricht church completely mistook the bones for the remains of a saint and took them as a relic.
Scientist Georges Cuvier denied all these options for the origin of the skeleton. After meticulous work, he suggested that the remains belong to an ancient reptile that lived in the waters of Holland millions of years ago. This was indicated by the large size of the skeleton, including the spine, a huge head and jaw with many sharp teeth, which testified to the predatory lifestyle of the creature. Cuvier also noticed the remains of ancient fish, molluscs and other aquatic life that this reptile apparently fed on.
The creature was called a mososaurus, which can be translated from Greek as "reptile of the river Meuse" (in French, Meuse). This was the first serious scientific discovery of the scientist. By doing an analysis onthe remains of an unknown creature, Georges Cuvier laid the foundation for a new science - paleontology.
How the remains were handled
Georges Cuvier studied and systematized about forty species of various prehistoric animals. Some of them could only remotely resemble modern representatives of the fauna, but the vast majority had nothing to do with cows, sheep, deer.
Also, the scientist proved that before the world was the kingdom of reptiles. Water and land have become home to a large number of different types of dinosaurs. Even the sky was dominated by pterodactyls, not birds, as other researchers believed.
Georges Cuvier developed his own way of studying the remains. As a result, based on the skeleton of the animal and the knowledge that all parts of the body are interconnected, he could guess what the creature actually looked like. As practice has shown, his work was very believable.
Georges Cuvier: contributions to biology
Continuing the study of animals, the scientist began to analyze the similarities and differences between them. As a result, he became the founder of such a trend in science as comparative anatomy. His theory of "correlation of parts of the body" states that all organs and structures are interconnected, and their structure and functionality depend on environmental conditions, nutrition, reproduction.
An example is the analysis of an ungulate animal. It feeds on grass, which means it must have massive teeth. Since a powerful jaw requires highly developed musculature, the head will also be large relative to the rest of the body. Such a headit is necessary to support, which means that the vertebrae of the cervical region and their processes will be developed. A herbivorous mammal, having no fangs or claws, must somehow defend itself against predators. As a result, horns appeared. Vegetable food is digested for a long time, which leads to the development of a voluminous stomach and a long intestine. A developed digestive system is the reason for the presence of wide ribs and a large belly.
Further work in the field of paleontology led to the discovery of many unseen creatures. Among them are pterodactyls - flying reptiles that used to be predators and fed on fish. So Georges Cuvier proved that millions of years ago the sky was dominated by reptiles, not birds.
Catastrophe theory
Georges Cuvier, whose biography was associated with the development of paleontology, brought his idea of the evolution of living organisms. Studying the remains of ancient creatures, the scientist noticed one pattern: in the surface layers of the earth's crust there are bones of animals that have at least the slightest resemblance to modern species, and in deeper layers - the skeletons of prehistoric creatures.
Despite this discovery, Georges Cuvier contradicted himself. The fact is that he denied evolution as a whole, as a result of which the scientist proposed his theory of the development of fauna on the planet. Cuvier suggested that at indefinite intervals a piece of land was flooded by the sea, and all living organisms died. After that, the water departed, and in a new place other organisms arose with fundamentally new features of the structure of the organism. When asked where these animals couldappear, scientists could only guess. Catastrophe theory is reactionary because it was an attempt to reconcile science and religion.
Georges Cuvier's ideas about the evolution of fauna could have originated due to the fact that at the time of the development of paleontology, transitional forms between individual animal species were not found. As a consequence, there was no reason to assume a stage-by-stage evolutionary development of organisms. Only Darwin proposed such a theory, but this happened after the death of Georges Cuvier.
Differences in the classification of Linnaeus and Cuvier
Working with animals and studying their structure, Georges Cuvier briefly systematized all representatives of the fauna into 4 types:
1. Vertebrates. This included all animals with a dissected skeleton. Examples: birds, reptiles (reptiles and amphibians), mammals, fish.
2. Radiant. This combined group included all representatives of the fauna that had ray symmetry of the body, which is typical, for example, for a starfish.
3. Soft-bodied. These are animals with a soft body enclosed in a hard shell. These include cuttlefish, mussels, oysters, grape snails, pond snails, octopuses, etc.
4. Arthropods. Animals belonging to this group have a powerful external skeleton in the form of a hard shell, and the whole body is divided into many segments. Examples: centipedes, insects, crustaceans, arachnids. Some worms were erroneously included as well.
Linnaeus, unlike Georges Cuvier, singled out 6 such types: reptiles, birds, mammals, fish, insects andworms (here amphibians also belong to reptiles). From the point of view of systematics, the classification of animals according to Cuvier turned out to be more perfect, and therefore was used for a long time.
An interesting fact from the life of a scientist
One day, a student of Cuvier decided to play a trick on him. To do this, he put on a ram costume and, while the teacher was sleeping, quietly approached his bed. He exclaimed: "Cuvier, Cuvier, I'll eat you!" Georges, in his sleep, felt for the horns and saw the hooves, after which he calmly replied: “You are not a predator, you won’t be able to eat me.”
There is also a quote by Cuvier that all the organs and parts of the animal's body are interconnected. It states that “the organism is a coherent whole. Parts of it cannot be changed without causing others to change.”
Achievements
Georges Cuvier was considered an outstanding scientist in the field of paleontology of that time. A brief biography says that in 1794 the scientist worked in the new Museum of Natural History. There he wrote the first works on entomology, which became the beginning of serious scientific activity.
In 1795, Cuvier began to live in Paris. A year later, he took the chair of animal anatomy at the Sorbonne and was appointed a member of the national institute. A couple of years later, the scientist became the head of the Department of Comparative Anatomy at the same Paris University.
For scientific achievements, Georges Cuvier received the title of peer of France and became a member of the French Academy.
Conclusion
Cuvier made a huge contribution to the development of comparative anatomy and paleontology. His work became the foundation forfurther study of animals, and its classification has been preserved for a long time. And although he left a number of misconceptions in the field of evolution, the scientist deserves praise and recognition for his numerous works.
Georges Cuvier died on May 13, 1832.
