Georges Cuvier (Cuvier Georges)

(1769-1832)
Born August 23, 1769 in Montbeliard (Alsace). Caroline graduated from the Academy in Stuttgart (1788). In 1795 he entered the office assistant of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, from 1799 - professor of natural history at the College de France. He has held several government posts under Napoleon I and during the Restoration. Acting president of the Council on Education, chairman of the Committee of the Interior, was a member of the Council of State. The Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Paris, organized a number of universities and high schools in the cities of France. In 1820 he received the title of baron in 1831 - a peer of France.
Cuvier played a significant role in the creation of paleontology and comparative anatomy. The classification put the structure of the nervous system, based on this in 1812 formulated the doctrine of the four 'types' organization of animals: 'vertebrates', 'articulate', 'soft-bodied' and 'radiant'. Described the large number of fossil forms, and invited him to determine the age of geological strata in which they found. Reconstructed the whole organisms by a few parts found during excavation. To explain the change of flora and fauna in different periods of Earth's evolution, proposed the theory of catastrophes (1817-1824).

Cuvier was a follower of C. Linnaeus and rejected the evolutionary views of Lamarck and J. E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Cuvier died in Paris on May 13, 1832.