Page 60 - Once Upon a Time There Was Darwinism
P. 60

aleontology, the study of fossils, developed long
                             before Darwin. The founder of this science was
                          the French naturalist, Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-
                  1832). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, he introduced
                  fossils into zoological classification, showed the progressive

                  relation between rock strata and their fossil remains, and
                  demonstrated, in his comparative anatomy and reconstruc-
                  tions of fossil skeletons, the importance of functional and
                  anatomical relationships. 18
                       Cuvier was opposed to the theory of evolution proposed
                  in his time by Lamarck. He insisted that genera of living
                  things were created separately, stressed the detail and deli-




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