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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