Georges Cuvier

Georges Cuvier was a pioneering French naturalist and paleontologist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is best known for establishing extinction as a fact, demonstrating that many species that once lived on Earth no longer exist today. Cuvier developed the concept of catastrophism, suggesting that historical events, such as natural disasters, led to mass extinctions and shaped the Earth’s biodiversity. His work laid the foundation for modern paleontology and helped advance the understanding of Earth’s biological history, significantly influencing the fields of biology and geology.