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Georges Cuvier Facts & Worksheets

Georges Cuvier was known as the founding father of paleontology. He was a French naturalist and zoologist.

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Georges Cuvier was known as the founding father of paleontology. He was a French naturalist and zoologist. Cuvier was able to reconstruct and prove that there were extinct species of animals.

See the fact file below for more information on the Georges Cuvier or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Georges Cuvier worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

GENERAL FACTS

  • Georges Cuvier was born on August 23, 1669, in Montbéliard, County of Montbéliard, Holy Roman Empire.
  • Georges Cuvier died at the age of 62 on May 13, 1832, in Paris, Kingdom of France.
  • Georges Cuvier was a major figure of 19th-century science and research. He was known for La Règne Animal.

LA REGNE ANIMAL

  • La Regne Animal translates to “The Animal Kingdom”.
  • It was Georges Cuvier’s most famous work.
  • In the book, Cuvier described the structure of the whole animal kingdom as he based it on comparative anatomy and natural history.

EARLY LIFE

  • Georges Cuvier’s mother was Anne Clemence Chatel.
  • Georges Cuvier’s father was a retired lieutenant of the swiss army, named Jean George Cuvier.
  • George Cuvier’s parents were members of the Lutheran Church.
  • As a child, George Cuvier was often sick. He was physically weak and suffered from poor health.
  • His mother dedicated a great amount of time to tutor him, so that he would surpass the other children once he goes to school.

DEVELOPING INTERESTS AND EDUCATION

  • When Georges entered the gymnasium, he quickly excelled in learning Latin and Greek. He was also ahead in the subject of mathematics.
  • Georges Cuvier developed his interest in natural history after he discovered and read a copy of Conrad Gesner’s Historiae Animalium.
  • After encountering Conrad’s book, he began to visit the home of a relative just to borrow a copy of Histoire Naturelle, a massive encyclopedia by the Comte de Buffon, a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedist.
  • He was 10 by the time he discovered Histoire Naturelle, and he read and reread it until the age of 12.
  • George Cuvier remained at the gymnasium for four years.
  • For four years, Cuvier attended Caroline Academy, located in Stuttgart, the capital and largest city of Baden-Württemberg.
  • At Caroline Academy, Cuvier excelled in all of his coursework.
  • He was exposed to the work of Abraham Gottlob Werner, a German geologist who proposed early theories of Earth’s stratification.
  • Cuvier was inspired by Werner’s theory of Neptunism, as it provided him with models for his scientific theories and methods.
  • His first job after graduating was as a tutor to the only son of a Protestant Noble, the son of Comte d’Héricy.
  • He started in July of 1788 at a Fiquainville chateau in Normandy.

CAREER

  • He began his early experiments in the 1790’s, when he started to compare fossils with other species that still exist.
  • He regularly attended meetings held at the town of Valmont, where agricultural topics were discussed.
  • Here, he met Alexandre Tessier, whom Cuvier recognized as the author of certain articles on agriculture in the Encyclopédie Méthodique.
  • His closeness with Tessier led him to a correspondence with another naturalist. Soon, he was invited to Paris.
  • He arrived in Paris in the spring of 1975. Soon, Cuvier became an assistant of Jean-Claude Mertud, the chair of Animal Anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden in France.
  • Mertud died in 1802, and Cuvier replaced him.
  • Cuvier also changed the office’s name to Chair of Comparative Anatomy.
  • Cuvier lectured at the École Centrale du Pantheon beginning on April 4, 1796.
  • He presented his first paper in at the National Institute. The paper was titled Mémoires sur les espèces d’éléphants vivants et fossiles.
  • In Cuvier’s paper, he analyzed the skeletal remains of Indian and African elephants, mammoth fossils, and a fossil skeleton from an “Ohio animal”.
  • Cuvier concluded that African and Indian elephants were different species, and mammoths were not the same species as Indian and African elephants. In fact, he concluded that mammoths were extinct.
  • This was the first time that these differences were proven and explained.
  • In 1806, Cuvier gave a name to the “Ohio animal”. He called it the “mastodon”.
  • His second paper, written in 1796, featured an analysis of a large skeleton found in Paraguay, which he named the Megatherium. It was concluded to be another extinct species.
  • His papers in 1796 became a significant landmark event in the field of paleontology and comparative anatomy.
  • Cuvier was also elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences for the newly-found Institut de France in 1802.

PERSONAL DETAILS AND DEATH

  • Cuvier married Madame Duvaucel in 1803. He was 33 years old at the time.
  • Cuvier and Madame Duvaucel had four children. However, three of them died in childhood.
  • Clémentine, their only surviving daughter, was encouraged by Cuvier to become a scientist. However, she died in 1827, at the age of 22, due to tuberculosis.
  • Cuvier died from cholera at the age of 62, on May 13, 1832, in Paris. He was buried in the Cemetery of the Father.

Georges Cuvier Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Georges Cuvier across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Georges Cuvier worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Georges Cuvier who was known as the founding father of paleontology. He was a French naturalist and zoologist. Cuvier was able to reconstruct and prove that there were extinct species of animals.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Georges Cuvier Facts
  • Georges’ Background
  • Interests Checklist
  • Related Vocabulary
  • Truth or Trash
  • Specimen Analysis
  • French Naturalists
  • Observing Organisms
  • Traits To Emulate
  • Curious Questions
  • Life in Summary

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