Georges Cuvier is a great zoologist, the founder of comparative animal anatomy and paleontology. This man amazes with his desire to study the world around him, and, despite some erroneous views, he made a considerable contribution to the development of science.
Scientist childhood
Cuvier was born on August 23, 1769 in the city of Montbeliard, France. Little Georges was smart beyond his years: at 4 years old he read well, and his mother taught him how to draw. The ability to painting was useful to the scientist in his work on paleontology, where he painted illustrations for books by hand. These illustrations were then copied for a long time to other print media, so 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 studied with him, and also lifted to her feet after another illness (Cuvier often fell ill in childhood).
Education
School years of the future scientist flew by quickly. Georges Cuvier proved to be a talented student, but he had a rebellious character. Initially, it was planned that the boy would continue his studies at the theological school and receive the title of pastor, however, the strained relationship with the director did not allow him to become a priest of the Protestant church.
Georges Cuvier received his further education at the Faculty of Office Sciences (management of state property) at the Caroline Academy. Here in Stuttgart, a scientist studied hygiene, law, national economy and finance. Already at university, he was fond of the animal kingdom, so with his participation the "Academy" circle was organized. This association lasted 4 years - as long as George studied at the faculty. Members of the circle shared their small achievements in the study of nature, prepared speeches. Distinguished were awarded an improvised cardboard medal with the image of Lamarck.
Georges Cuvier - biography of a scientist at the crossroads of a life path
Four years of student life passed quickly, and Georges returned home to his parents. My father has already retired, my mother did not work. As a result, the family budget was almost empty, which, of course, could not be ignored.
Then the rumor reached the scientist that Count Erisi from Normandy was looking for a home teacher for his son. Being an educated man, Georges Cuvier packed his bags and went on a side job. The house of the famous Count was located on the seashore, and this gave Georges the opportunity to see the marine inhabitants not only on paper, but also live. He boldly opened starfish, sea worms, fish, crabs and crayfish, mollusks. Then Georges Cuvier was surprised how complicated the structure at first glance of the simplest living organisms. Numerous vessels, nerves, glands and organ systems simply amazed the scientist. His work with marine animals was described in the journal Zoological Bulletin.
The first research in the field of paleontology
The end of the 18th century was the birth of paleontology. Cuvier, as the founder of this science, made a great contribution to its development. His first experience was related to the case when he received a parcel 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 of the then famous Cuvier to Paris. The "getter" himself claimed that it could be whale bones. In turn, many scientists found similarities with the skeleton of a crocodile, and the Maastricht church altogether took the bones for the remains of the saint and took it to itself as a relic.
Scientist Georges Cuvier has denied all of these options for the origin of the skeleton. After scrupulous 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, indicating a predatory lifestyle of the creature. Cuvier also noticed the remains of ancient fish, mollusks, and other aquatic creatures, which, apparently, fed this reptile.
The creature was called the Mososaur, which can be translated from Greek as “reptile of the river Meuse” (in French Mez). This was the first serious scientific discovery of the scientist. Having made an analysis of the remains of an unknown creature, Georges Cuvier laid the foundation for a new science - paleontology.
How was the work with the remains
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, rams, deer.
The scientist also 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 really looked like. As practice has shown, his work was very believable.
Georges Cuvier: a contribution 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” says that all organs and structures are interconnected, and their structure and functionality depend on environmental conditions, nutrition, and 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 muscles, the head will also be large in size relative to the rest of the body. Such a head must be supported, which means that the vertebrae of the cervical spine and their processes will be developed. A herbivorous mammal, without fangs or claws, must somehow protect itself from predators. As a result, horns appeared. Plant food is digested for a long time, which leads to the development of a voluminous stomach and a long intestine. A well-developed digestive system is the reason for the presence of wide ribs and a large abdomen.
Further work in the field of paleontology led to the discovery of many unprecedented creatures. Among them, pterodactyls are flying reptiles that used to be predators and ate fish. So Georges Cuvier proved that millions of years ago the sky was ruled 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 are animal bones that have at least the slightest resemblance to modern species, and in deeper layers - 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 perished. After that, the water departed, and other organisms appeared in a new place with fundamentally new structural features of the body. When asked where these animals came from, scientists could only guess. The theory of catastrophes is reactionary, because its appearance was an attempt to reconcile science and religion.
Georges Cuvier's ideas about the evolution of fauna could have arisen due to the fact that at the time of the development of paleontology transitional forms between individual animal species were not found. As a result, there was no reason to assume a phased evolutionary development of organisms. Only Darwin proposed a similar 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. In this team, all representatives of the fauna were collected, who possessed the beam symmetry of the body, which is characteristic, for example, of a starfish.
3. Soft. These are animals with a soft body enclosed in a hard shell. These include cuttlefish, mussels, oysters, grape snails, ponds, 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: millipedes, insects, crustaceans, arachnids. Some worms were mistakenly treated here.
Linnaeus, unlike Georges Cuvier, identified 6 of these types: reptiles, birds, mammals, fish, insects and worms (here amphibians are also reptiles). From the point of view of taxonomy, the classification of animals according to Cuvier turned out to be more perfect, and therefore it has been used for a long time.
An interesting fact from the life of a scientist
Once the student Cuvier decided to play a trick on him. To do this, he put on a ram costume and, while the teacher was sleeping, quietly went to his bed. He exclaimed: “Cuvier, Cuvier, I will eat you!” Georges felt his horns through a dream and saw hooves, after which he calmly replied: “You are not a predator, you won’t be able to eat me.”
There is also a Cuvier quote that all organs and parts of the animal’s body are interconnected. It states that “the organism is a coherent whole. Some parts of it cannot be changed without causing others to change. ”
Achievements
George 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 occupied the Department 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 of the same University of Paris.
For scientific achievements, Georges Cuvier received the rank of peer of France and became a member of the French Academy.
Conclusion
Cuvier made an enormous contribution to the development of comparative anatomy and paleontology. His work became the foundation for further study of animals, and his classification remained for a long time. And although he left a number of errors in the field of evolution, the scientist is worthy of praise and recognition for his many works.
Georges Cuvier died on May 13, 1832.