1.- Cuvier Georges Leopold (1769-1832)
2.- Cuvier Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert
3.- Note circa la famiglia Cuvier
Cuvier Georges Leopold (1769-1832)
Georg Kuefer--
Georges Leopold Chretien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (Montbéliard, 23 agosto 1769 – Parigi, 13 maggio 1832) è stato un naturalista francese.
Biografia
Nacque a Montbéliard (in tedesco Mömpelgard nella regione di Württemberg in Germania) con il nome di Georg Kuefer. Suo padre era un ufficiale in congedo a stipendio ridotto appartenente ad una famiglia protestante che era emigrata dai monti del Giura, sul confine franco-svizzero, a causa delle persecuzioni religiose.
Fin da giovane dimostrò una discreta inclinazione verso l'investigazione dei fenomeni naturali, facendosi notare per il suo attaccamento allo studio e la sua notevole memoria.
Dopo aver trascorso quattro anni alla Accademia di Stuttgart, accettò l'incarico di tutore presso la famiglia del Conte d'Héricy, che aveva l'abitudine di trascorrere l'estate vicino a Fécamp. In quell'occasione fece amicizia con A. H. Tessier, di professione agricoltore, che a quell'epoca viveva a Fécamp e che promosse strenuamente il suo nuovo protetto presso i propri amici a Parigi.
Il risultato di questo appoggio fu che Cuvier, dopo un periodo di corrispondenza con il noto naturalista Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, venne nominato nel 1795 assistente del professore di anatomia comparata al Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle di Parigi. Nello stesso anno venne fondato l'Institut de France e Cuvier ne venne eletto membro.
Nel 1796 iniziò ad insegnare all'École Centrale du Pantheon e, in occasione dell'inaugurazione dell'Institut de France nell'aprile dello stesso anno, lesse in pubblico il suo primo saggio di paleontologia, che fu in seguito pubblicato, nel 1800, con il titolo Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles.
Nel 1798 venne pubblicato il suo primo lavoro come autore, il Tableau élémentaire de l'Histoire naturelle des animaux, un compendio del suo corso di lezioni alla École du Pantheon, che può essere considerato come il fondamento e la prima esposizione della sua classificazione scientifica del regno animale.
Nel 1799 subentrò a L. J. M. Daubenton come professore di storia naturale nel Collège de France e, l'anno successivo, pubblicò le Leçons d'anatomie comparée, divenuto poi un classico dell'anatomia comparata. Nella sua realizzazione venne assistito da André Marie Constant Duméril nei primi due volumi, e da Georges Louis Duvernoy nei successivi tre.
Nel 1802 Cuvier divenne professore titolare al Jardin des Plantes, e lo stesso anno venne nominato commissario dell'Institut de France per accompagnare gli ispettori generali della pubblica istruzione. Con questa carica visitò il sud della Francia; ma, all'inizio del 1803, venne nominato segretario a vita dell'Institut de France nel dipartimento delle scienze fisiche e naturali, e, pertanto, dovette abbandonare l'incarico di commissario e rientrare a Parigi.
Da questo momento in avanti si dedicò specialmente a tre settori di ricerca: il primo riguardante la struttura e la classificazione dei Molluschi, il secondo l'anatomia comparata e la classificazione sistematica dei Pesci e il terzo i fossili di Mammiferi e Rettili. Si occupò secondariamente anche dell'osteologia delle forme viventi facenti parte degli stessi gruppi.
Iniziò a scrivere saggi sui Molluschi fin dal 1792, ma la maggior parte dei suoi lavori su questo argomento vennero pubblicati negli Annales du museum tra il 1802 e il 1815; essi vennero in seguito raccolti nelle Mémoires pour l'ervir de l'histoire et a l'anatomie des mollusques, pubblicate in un unico volume a Parigi nel 1817.
Per quanto riguarda i Pesci, le ricerche di Cuvier in collaborazione con A. Valenciennes, iniziate nel 1801, culminarono nella pubblicazione tra il 1828 e il 1831, della Histoire naturelle des poissons, contenente le descrizioni di 5000 specie di pesci.
Per quanto concerne le ricerche sulla paleontologia dei Mammiferi, si può tranquillamente affermare che essa venne praticamente creata e definita da Cuvier.
Egli pubblicò un gran numero di scritti concernenti questo settore di ricerca: parte di essi riguardava l'analisi delle ossa di animali estinti, altra parte descriveva i risultati di osservazioni di scheletri di animali viventi, esaminati soprattutto nell'ottica di fare luce sulle affinità strutturali con le forme fossili.
Nel secondo gruppo di scritti va sicuramente collocato un buon numero di trattati sull'osteologia del Rhinoceros indicus, del tapiro, dell'Hyrax capensis, dell'ippopotamo, del bradipo, del lamantino, etc.
Al primo gruppo va ascritto un numero persino maggiore di saggi riguardanti i mammiferi estinti ritrovati negli strati dell'Eocene di Montmartre, le specie fossili di ippopotamo, il Didelphys gypsorum, il Megalonyx, il Megatherium, la iena delle caverne, lo pterodattilo, il Palaeotherium, le specie estinte di rinoceronte, l'orso delle caverne, il mastodonte, le specie estinte di elefante, le specie fossili di lamantino e di foca, le forme fossili di coccodrilli, cheloni, pesci, uccelli, etc.
I risultati delle principali ricerche paleontologiche e geologiche di Cuvier vennero alla fine resi pubblici in due opere disitnte. La prima è la celebrata Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupedes, pubblicata a Parigi nel 1812, con edizioni successive nel 1821 e nel 1825; la seconda è il suo Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe, pubblicato a Parigi nel 1825.
Ma nessuna delle sue opere ottenne un così alto riconoscimento come il suo Regne animal distribué d'après son organisation, la cui prima edizione fu pubblicata in quattro volumi in ottavo nel 1817, la seconda in cinque volumi tra il 1829 e il 1830. In questo lavoro Cuvier raccolse i risultati di tutte le sue precedenti ricerche sulla struttura degli animali viventi ed estinti. Tutta l'attività di ricerca è ascrivibile allo stesso Cuvier, ad eccezione della parte sugli Insetti, dove fu assistito dall'amico Pierre André Latreille.
Nel 1821, Cuvier fece ciò che poi venne definito il suo "Dictum temerario": egli affermò che molto probabilmente non sarebbero più state scoperte nuove specie di animali. Invece molte scoperte di questo tipo sono state effettuate dall'affermazione di Cuvier ad oggi.
Oltre alle sue attività di ricerca nel campo della zoologia e della paleontologia, Cuvier lavorò molto come segretario a vita dell'Institut de France e, in generale, come ufficiale legato alla educazione pubblica; molto del suo lavoro venne in seguito pubblicato. In conseguenza di ciò, nel 1808, egli venne incaricato da Napoleone Bonaparte di dirigere il consiglio della Università Imperiale e, con questo ruolo, presiedette (negli anni 1809, 1811 e 1813) alcune commissioni incaricate di esaminare lo stato delle strutture educative di alto livello nei distretti al di là delle Alpi e del Reno che erano stati annessi alla Francia, e di riferire circa la loro possibile affiliazione all'università centrale. Cuvier pubblicò tre rapporti distinti su questo argomento.
Sempre come segretario a vita dell'Institut de France, egli non soltanto elaborò un discreto numero di éloges historiques sui membri deceduti dell'Accademia delle Scienze di Parigi, ma fu anche autore di alcuni resoconti sulla storia della fisica e delle scienze naturali, il più importante dei quali fu il Rapport historique sur le progrès des sciences physiques depuis 1789, pubblicato nel 1810.
Prima della caduta di Napoleone (1814) Cuvier venne ammesso al Consiglio di Stato, e la sua posizione rimase tale anche in seguito alla restaurazione dei Borboni. Egli venne eletto rettore dell'università e con questa carica, ricoprì ad interim la funzione di presidente del Consiglio della Pubblica Istruzione, mentre, contemporaneamente, come luterano, fu soprintendente della Facoltà di Teologia Protestante.
Nel 1826 venne nominato gran ufficiale della Légion d'honneur; nel 1831 venne innalzato da Luigi Filippo di Francia al rango di pari di Francia e, in seguito, nominato presidente del Consiglio di Stato. All'inizio del 1832 Cuvier venne nominato Ministro degli Interni, ma moriva a Parigi nel maggio dello stesso anno dopo una breve malattia.Cuvier fu il fondatore, in contrapposizione con Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, della teoria delle catastrofi naturali, secondo la quale la maggior parte degli organismi viventi nel passato sarebbero stati spazzati via da numerosi cataclismi e il mondo sarebbe stato ripopolato dalle specie sopravvissute.
Bibliografia
Dorinda Outram, Georges Cuvier: Vocation, Science and Authority in Post-Revolutionary France (Palgrave Macmillan, 1984).
P.J.M. Flourens, Eloge historique de G. Cuvier, pubblicato come introduzione agli Eloges historiques di Cuvier.
Histoire des truvaux de Georges Cuvier (3° ed., Parigi, 1858).
A.P. de Candolle, Mort de G. Cuvier, Biblioteca universale (1832, 59, p. 442).
CL Laurillard, Cuvier Biografia universale, supp. vol. 61 (1836).
Sarah Lee, Memoirs of Cuvier, (1833).
Cuvier Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert
Georg Kuefer
(August 23, 1769 – May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. Of humble working class origins, he belonged
to a new class of self-made scholars who worked their way to the top of academe. Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century, and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology by comparing living animals with fossils. He is well known for establishing extinction as a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing the gradualistic evolutionary theories of Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. His most famous work is the Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). He died in Paris of cholera. In 1819, he was created a peer for the life in honor of his scientific contributions.[1] Thereafter he was known as Baron Cuvier.Contents
1 Life and scientific career
2 Scientific ideas and their impact
2.1 Extinction
2.2 Catastrophism
2.3 Stratigraphy
2.4 Age of reptiles
2.5 Principle of correlation of parts
2.6 Opposition to gradualistic theories of evolution
3 Chief scientific work
3.1 On comparative anatomy and classification
3.2 On molluscs
3.3 On fish
3.4 On palaeontology and osteology
3.5 The Animal Kingdom
4 Official and public work
5 Animals named after Cuvier
6 Principal Scientific Publications
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
Life and scientific career
Georges Cuvier
Cuvier was born in Montbéliard, France (in department of Doubs), where his protestant ancestors had lived since the time of the Reformation,[2] under the name of Johann Leopold Nicolaus Friedrich Kuefer.[3] At the time the town, then named Mömpelgard, lay in the Duchy of Württemberg, but later became part of France (1805). He was the son of a retired military officer, who had served 40 years in the French army.[4] His mother, who was much younger than his father, tutored him diligently throughout his early years so that he easily excelled the other children at school.[5] During his gynasium years, he had little trouble acquiring Latin and Greek, and was always at the head of his class in mathematics, history, and geography.[6] According to Lee (1833, p. 11), "The history of mankind was, from the earliest period of his life, a subject of the most indefatigable application; and long lists of sovereigns, princes, and the driest chronological facts, once arranged in his memory, were never forgotten."Soon after entering the gymnasium, at age 10, he encountered a copy of Gesner's Historiae Animalium, the work that first sparked his interest in natural history. He then began frequent visits to the home of a relation where he could borrow volumes of Buffon's massive Histoire Naturelle. All of these he read and re-read, retaining so much of the information that by the age of twelve "he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as a first-rate naturalist."[7] He remained at the gymnasium for four years.
Cuvier spent an additional four years at the Caroline Academy in Stuttgart, where he excelled in all of his coursework. Although he knew no German on his arrival, after only nine months study he managed to win the school prize for that language. Upon graduation, he had no money to await appointment to academic office. So in July, 1788 he took a job in Normandy as tutor to the only son of the Comte d'Héricy, a Protestant noble. It was here during the early 1790s that he began his comparisons of fossils with extant forms. Cuvier regularly attended meetings held at the nearby town of Valmont for the discussion of agricultural topics. There, he became acquainted with Henri Alexandre Tessier (1741-1837), a physician and well-known agronomist who had fled the Terror in Paris and assumed a false identity. After hearing Tessier speak on agricultural matters, Cuvier recognized him as the author of certain articles on agriculture in the Encyclopédie Méthodique and addressed him as M. Tessier. Tessier replied in dismay, "I am known, then, and consequently lost." — " Lost!" replied M. Cuvier; "no; you are henceforth the object of our most anxious care."[8] They soon became intimate and Tessier introduced Cuvier to his colleagues in Paris — "I have just found a pearl in the dunghill of Normandy," he wrote his friend Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.[9] As a result Cuvier entered into correspondence with several leading naturalists of the day and was invited to Paris. Arriving in the spring of 1795, at the age of 26, he soon became the assistant of Jean-Claude Mertrud (1728– 1802), who had been appointed to the newly created chair of comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes.[10]
This illustration of an Indian elephant jaw and a mammoth jaw was included in 1799 when Cuvier's 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants was printed.The Institut de France was founded in the same year, and he was elected a member of its Academy of Sciences. In 1796 he began to lecture at the École Centrale du Pantheon, and at the opening of the National Institute in April, he read his first palaeontological paper, which was subsequently published in 1800 under the title Mémoires sur les espèces d'éléphants vivants et fossiles. In this paper he analyzed skeletal remains of Indian and African elephants as well as mammoth fossils, and a fossil skeleton known at that time as the 'Ohio animal'. Cuvier's analysis established, for the first time, the fact that African and Indian elephants were different species and that mammoths were not the same species as either African or Indian elephants and therefore must be extinct. He further stated that the 'Ohio animal' represented another extinct species that was even more different from living elephants than mammoths were. Years later, in 1806, he would return to the 'Ohio animal' in another paper and give it the name mastodon.
In his second paper in the year 1796, he would describe and analyse a large skeleton found in Paraguay, which he would name megatherium. He concluded that this skeleton represented yet another extinct animal and, by comparing its skull with living species of tree dwelling sloths, that it was a kind of ground dwelling giant sloth. Together these two 1796 papers were a landmark event in the history of paleontology and in the development of comparative anatomy as well. They also greatly enhanced Cuvier's personal reputation, and they essentially ended what had been a long running debate about the reality of extinction.
In 1799 he succeeded Daubenton as professor of natural history in the College de France. In 1802 he became titular professor at the Jardin des Plantes; and in the same year he was appointed commissary of the Institute to accompany the inspectors general of public instruction. In this latter capacity he visited the south of France; but in the early part of 1803, he was chosen Permanent Secretary of the Department of Physical Sciences of the Academy, and he consequently abandoned the earlier appointment and returned to Paris. In 1806, he became a foreign member of the Royal Society and in 1812, a foreign members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
He now devoted himself more especially to three lines of inquiry: (i) the structure and classification of the Mollusca; (ii) the comparative anatomy and systematic arrangement of the fishes; (iii) fossil mammals and reptiles and, secondarily, the osteology of living forms belonging to the same groups.
In 1821, Cuvier made what has been called his "Rash Dictum": he remarked that it was unlikely that any large animal remained undiscovered. Many such discoveries have been made since Cuvier's statement.
Scientific ideas and their impact
Extinction
At the time Cuvier presented his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants, it was still widely believed that no species of animal had ever become extinct, because God's creation had been perfect. Authorities such as Buffon had claimed that fossils found in Europe of animals such as the wooly rhinoceros and mammoth were remains of animals still living in the tropics (ie rhinoceros and elephants), which had shifted out of Europe and Asia as the earth became cooler. Cuvier's early work demonstrated conclusively that this was not the case.[11]Catastrophism
Cuvier came to believe that most if not all the animal fossils he examined were remains of species that were now extinct. Near the end of his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants he said:All of these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe.
This led Cuvier to become an active proponent of the geological school of thought called catastrophism that maintained that many of the geological features of the earth and the past history of life could be explained by catastrophic events that had caused the extinction of many species of animals. Over the course of his career Cuvier came to believe that there had not been a single catastrophe but several, resulting in a succession of different faunas. He wrote about these ideas many times, in particular he discussed them in great detail in the preliminary discourse (introduction) to a collection of his papers, Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes, on quadruped fossils published in 1812. The 'Preliminary Discourse' became very well known and unauthorized (and in the case of English not entirely accurate) translations were made into English, German and Italian. In 1826 Cuvier would publish a revised version under the name Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe.After Cuvier's death the catastrophic school of geological thought lost ground to uniformitarianism, as championed by Charles Lyell and others, which claimed that the geological features of the earth were best explained by currently observable forces, such as erosion and volcanism, acting gradually over an extended period of time. However, the increasing interest in the topic of mass extinction starting in the late 20th century has led to a resurgence of interest among historians of science and other scholars in this aspect of Cuvier's work.
Stratigraphy
Cuvier collaborated for several years with Alexandre Brongniart, an instructor at the Paris mining school, to produce a monograph on the geology of the region around Paris. They published a preliminary version in 1808 and the final version was published in 1811. In this monograph they identified characteristic fossils of different rock layers that they used to analyze the geological column, the ordered layers of sedimentary rock, of the Paris basin. They concluded that the layers had been laid down over an extended period during which there clearly had been faunal succession and that the area had been submerged under sea water at times and at other times under fresh water. Along with William Smith's work during the same period on a geological map of England, which also used characteristic fossils and the principle of faunal succession to correlate layers of sedimentary rock, the monograph helped establish the scientific discipline of stratigraphy. It was a major development in the history of paleontology and the history of geology.[12]Age of reptiles
In 1800, Cuvier was the first to correctly identify in print, working only from a drawing, a fossil found in Bavaria as a small flying reptile[13], which he named the Ptero-Dactyle in 1809[14] (later Latinized as Pterodactylus antiquus)--the first known member of the diverse order of pterosaurs. In 1808 Cuvier identified a fossil found in Maastricht as giant marine lizard, which he named Mosasaurus, the first known mosasaur. Cuvier speculated that there had been a time when reptiles rather than mammals had been the dominant fauna.[15] This speculation was confirmed over the next two decades by a series of spectacular finds, mostly by English geologists and fossil collectors, who found and described the first ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dinosaurs.Principle of correlation of parts
In a 1798 paper on the fossil remains of an animal found in some plaster quarries near Paris Cuvier wrote:Today comparative anatomy has reached such a point of perfection that, after inspecting a single bone, one can often determine the class, and sometimes even the genus of the animal to which it belonged, above all if that bone belonged to the head or the limbs. ... This is because the number, direction, and shape of the bones that compose each part of an animal's body are always in a necessary relation to all the other parts, in such a way that - up to a point - one can infer the whole from any one of them and vice versa.
This idea is sometimes referred to as 'Cuvier's principle of correlation of parts', and while Cuvier's description may somewhat exaggerate its power, the basic concept is central to comparative anatomy and paleontology.Opposition to gradualistic theories of evolution
Cuvier was critical of the evolutionary theories proposed by his contemporaries Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, which involved the gradual transmutation of one form into another. He repeatedly emphasized that his extensive experience with fossil material indicated that one fossil form does not, as a rule, gradually change into a succeeding, distinct fossil form. Instead, he said, the typical form makes an abrupt appearance in the fossil record, and persists unchanged to the time of its extinction (this is the well-documented paleontological phenomenon now referred to as "punctuated equilibrium").[16] In other words, Cuvier was a saltationist. While, like other saltationists, he offered no explanation of how saltational evolution might occur, he was skeptical of the gradual mechanisms of change that Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire proposed. Moreover, his commitment to the principle of correlation of parts caused him to doubt that any mechanism could ever gradually modify any part of an animal in isolation from all the other parts (in the way Lamarck proposed), without rendering the animal unable to survive.[17] In his Éloge de M. de Lamarck (Praise for M. de Lamarck),[18],[19] Cuvier noted that Lamarck's theory of evolution"rested on two arbitrary suppositions; the one, that it is the seminal vapor which organizes the embryo; the other, that efforts and desires may engender organs. A system established on such foundations may amuse the imagination of a poet; a metaphysician may derive from it an entirely new series of systems; but it cannot for a moment bear the examination of anyone who has dissected a hand, a viscus, or even a feather."
He also pointed out that Napoleon's expedition to Egypt had retrieved animals mummified thousands of years previously that seemed no different from their modern counterparts.[20] "Certainly," Cuvier wrote, "one cannot detect any greater difference between these creatures and those we see, than between the human mummies and the skeletons of present-day men."[21] Lamarck dismissed this conclusion, arguing that evolution happened much too slowly to be observed over just a few thousand years. Cuvier, however, in turn criticized how Lamarck and other naturalists conveniently introduced hundreds of thousands of years "with a stroke of a pen" to uphold their theory. Instead, he argued that one can only judge what a long time would produce by multiplying what a lesser time produces. Since a lesser time produced no organic changes, neither, probably, would a much longer time.[22]Cuvier’s claim that new fossil forms appear abruptly in the geological record and then continue without alteration in overlying strata was used by later thinkers to support creationism (Gillispie 1996, p. 103). The abruptness seemed consistent with special creation by God (although Cuvier's finding that different types made their paleontological debuts in different geological strata clearly did not). The lack of change was consistent with the supposed sacred immutability of "species," but, again, the idea of extinction, of which Cuvier was the great proponent, obviously was not.
In particular, he nowhere refers to the Bible in scientific argument. In fact, his claims concerning past history often conflicted with Scripture (Coleman 1962; Russell 1982). A creationist would say that the various life forms existing today are not only constant in form over time, but also that they have been constant since "the Beginning." Cuvier consistently argued the contrary (i.e., that new types regularly replace older types in the fossil record). Cuvier explained the abrupt appearance of new fossil forms in terms of immigration, not creation: "I only say that they did not originally inhabit the places where we find them at present, and that they must have come from some other part of the globe" (Cuvier 1827, p. 113; Russell 1982, p. 41–44). Nowhere did he advance the hypothesis of successive new creations (Russell 1982, p. 43). Moreover, since he consistently promoted the idea that there has been a temporal succession of forms in the geological record (ibid), he could not have believed the various life forms that exist today were specially created "in the Beginning."
Many writers have unjustly accused Cuvier of obstinately maintaining that fossil human beings could never be found. In his Essay on the Theory of the Earth, he did say that "no human bones have yet been found among fossil remains," but he made it clear exactly what he meant: "When I assert that human bones have not been hitherto found among extraneous fossils, I must be understood to speak of fossils, or petrifactions, properly so called" (Cuvier 1818, p. 130). Petrified bones, which have had time to mineralize and turn to stone, are typically far older than ordinary bones. Cuvier's point was that all human fossils that he knew of were of relatively recent age because they 1) had not been petrified and 2) had been found only in superficial strata (Cuvier 1818, pp. 133–134; English translation quoted from Cuvier 1827, p. 121). But he was not dogmatic in this claim. When new evidence came to light, he included in a later edition an appendix describing a skeleton that he freely admitted was an "instance of a fossil human petrifaction" (Cuvier 1827, p. 407).[23]
The harshness of his criticism and the strength of his reputation continued to discourage naturalists from speculating about the gradual transmutation of species, right up until Darwin published The Origin of Species more than two decades after Cuvier's death.[24]
Chief scientific work
On comparative anatomy and classification
in 1798 Cuvier published his first independent work, the Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux, which was an abridgment of his course of lectures at the École du Pantheon, and may be regarded as the foundation and first statement of his natural classification of the animal kingdom.In 1800 he published the Leçons d'anatomie comparée, assisted by A. M. C. Duméril for the first two volumes and Georges Louis Duvernoy for the three later ones.
On molluscs
Cuvier's papers on the Mollusca began appearing as early as 1792, but most of his memoirs on this branch were published in the Annales du museum between 1802 and 1815; they were subsequently collected as Mémoires pour servir de l'histoire et a l'anatomie des mollusques, published in one volume at Paris in 1817.On fish
Cuvier's researches on fish, begun in 1801, finally culminated in the publication of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, which contained descriptions of 5000 species of fishes, and was the joint production of Cuvier and Achille Valenciennes. Cuvier's work on this project extended over the years 1828–1831.On palaeontology and osteology
In this field Cuvier published a long list of memoirs, partly relating to the bones of extinct animals, and partly detailing the results of observations on the skeletons of living animals, specially examined with a view of throwing light upon the structure and affinities of the fossil forms.Among living forms he published papers relating to the osteology of the Rhinoceros Indicus, the tapir, Hyrax capensis, the hippopotamus, the sloths, the manatee, etc.
He produced an even larger body of work on fossils, dealing with the extinct mammals of the Eocene beds of Montmartre, the fossil species of hippopotamus, a marsupial (which he called Didelphys gypsorum), the Megalonyx, the Megatherium, the cave-hyena, the pterodactyl, the extinct species of rhinoceros, the cave bear, the mastodon, the extinct species of elephant, fossil species of manatee and seals, fossil forms of crocodilians, chelonians, fish, birds, etc. The department of palaeontology dealing with the Mammalia may be said to have been essentially created and established by Cuvier.
The results of Cuvier's principal palaeontological and geological investigations were ultimately given to the world in the form of two separate works: Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes (Paris, 1812; later editions in 1821 and 1825); and Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe (Paris, 1825). In this latter work he expounded a scientific theory of Catastrophism.
The Animal Kingdom
None of Cuvier's works attained a higher reputation than his Le Règne Animal, the first edition of which appeared in four octavo volumes in 1817, and the second in five volumes in 1829–1830. In this classic work Cuvier embodied the results of the whole of his previous researches on the structure of living and fossil animals. The whole of the work was his own, with the exception of the section on Insecta, in which he was assisted by his friend Latreille. It was translated into English many times, often with substantial notes and supplementary material updating the book in accordance with the expansion of knowledge.
Memorial bust by David d'Angers, 1833[edit] Official and public work
Apart from his own original investigations in zoology and paleontology Cuvier carried out a vast amount of work as perpetual secretary of the National Institute, and as an official connected with public education generally; and much of this work appeared ultimately in a published form. Thus, in 1808 he was placed by Napoleon upon the council of the Imperial University, and in this capacity he presided (in the years 1809, 1811 and 1813) over commissions charged to examine the state of the higher educational establishments in the districts beyond the Alps and the Rhine which had been annexed to France, and to report upon the means by which these could be affiliated with the central university. Three separate reports on this subject were published by him.In his capacity, again, of perpetual secretary of the Institute, he not only prepared a number of éloges historiques on deceased members of the Academy of Sciences, but he was the author of a number of reports on the history of the physical and natural sciences, the most important of these being the Rapport historique sur le progrès des sciences physiques depuis 1789, published in 1810.
Prior to the fall of Napoleon (1814) he had been admitted to the council of state, and his position remained unaffected by the restoration of the Bourbons. He was elected chancellor of the university, in which capacity he acted as interim president of the council of public instruction, whilst he also, as a Lutheran, superintended the faculty of Protestant theology. In 1819 he was appointed president of the committee of the interior, and retained the office until his death.
In 1826 he was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour; he was subsequently appointed president of the council of state. Member of the Doctrinaires, he was nominated to the ministry of the interior in the beginning of 1832.
Animals named after Cuvier
Cuvier is commemorated in the naming of many animals; they include Cuvier's beaked whale, Cuvier's Gazelle, Cuvier's toucan, Cuvier's Bichir, Galeocerdo cuvier (tiger shark), and Anolis cuvieri, a lizard from Puerto Rico. There are also some extinct animals named after Cuvier, such as the South American giant sloth Catonyx cuvieri.Principal Scientific Publications
Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux (1797-1798)
Leçons d'anatomie comparée (5 volumes, 1800-1805) (text in French)
Essais sur la géographie minéralogique des environs de Paris, avec une carte géognostique et des coupes de terrain, with Alexandre Brongniart (1811)
Le Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation, pour servir de base à l'histoire naturelle des animaux et d'introduction à l'anatomie comparée (4 volumes, 1817)
Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes, où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs espèces d'animaux que les révolutions du globe paroissent avoir détruites (4 volumes, 1812) (text in French) 2 3 4
Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et à l'anatomie des mollusques (1817)
Éloges historiques des membres de l'Académie royale des sciences, lus dans les séances de l'Institut royal de France par M. Cuvier (3 volumes, 1819-1827) Vol. 1 , Vol. 2 , and Vol. 3 , (text in French)
Théorie de la terre (1821)
Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe et sur les changements qu'elles ont produits dans le règne animal (1822). New edition: Christian Bourgeois, Paris, 1985. (text in French)
Histoire des progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789 jusqu'à ce jour (5 volumes, 1826-1836)
Histoire naturelle des poissons (11 volumes, 1828-1848), continued by Achille Valenciennes
Histoire des sciences naturelles depuis leur origine jusqu'à nos jours, chez tous les peuples connus, professée au Collège de France (5 volumes, 1841-1845), edited, annotated, and published by Magdeleine de Saint-Agit
Cuvier also collaborated on the Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles (61 volumes, 1816-1845) and on the Biographie universelle (45 volumes, 1843-18??)See also
Frédéric Cuvier, also a naturalist, was Georges Cuvier's younger brother.
Saartjie Baartman, the "Hottentot Venus" whose body Cuvier examined
History of paleontology for more on the impact of Cuvier's scientific ideasNotes
1. Lee, 1833.
2. Lee 1833, p. 8.
3. Buffetaut, E., 2002, Cuvier — le découvreur de mondes disparus, Pour la Science
4. Lee 1833, p. 8.
5. Lee 1833, p. 8.
6. Lee 1833, p. 11.
7. Lee 1833, p. 11.
8. Lee 1833, p. 22.
9. Lee 1833, p. 22, footnote.
10. Lee 1833, p. 23.
11. Rudwick, Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes pp 22-24.
12. Rudwick, Georges Cuvier Fossil Bones and Geological Catastrophes pp.129-133
13. Cuvier, G. (1801). [Reptile volant]. In: Extrait d'un ouvrage sur les espèces de quadrupèdes dont on a trouvé les ossemens dans l'intérieur de la terre. Journal de Physique, de Chimie et d'Histoire Naturelle, 52: 253–267.
14. Cuvier, G. (1809). "Mémoire sur le squelette fossile d'un reptile volant des environs d'Aichstedt, que quelques naturalistes ont pris pour un oiseau, et dont nous formons un genre de Sauriens, sous le nom de Ptero-Dactyle." Annales du Muséum national d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 13: 424–437.
15. Rudwick p 158
16. http://www.macroevolution.net/georges-cuvier.html
17.http://www.lamarck.cnrs.fr/ice/ice_page_detail.php?lang=fr&type=text&bdd=lamarck&table=bio_lamarck&typeofbookDes=T%C3%A9moignages%20et%20biographies&bookId=3&title=&pageChapter=%C3%89LOGE%20DE%20M.%20DE%20LAMARCK,PAR%20M.%20LE%20BARON%20CUVIER&pageOrder=1&facsimile=off&search=no&num=&nav=1
18. http://www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/cuvier/cuvier_on_lamarck.htm
19. Zimmer, Evolution: the triumph of an idea pp 19
20. Rudwick, Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes, pp 229
21. Rudwick, Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes, pp 228-229
22. The material in the preceeding three paragraphs is based on notes in McCarthy (2008).
23. Larson, Evolution: the history of a scientific theory pp 9-10References
A. P. de Candolle, "Mort de G. Cuvier", Bibliothique universelle (1832, 59, p. 442)
PJM Flourens, Éloge historique de G. Cuvier, 1834, published as an introduction to the Éloges historiques of Cuvier
Coleman, W. 1962. Georges Cuvier, Zoologist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cuvier, G. (1815). Essay on the Theory of the Earth. Blackwood (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 9781108005555)
Cuvier, G. (Baron). 1818. Essay on the theory of the earth. New York: Kirk & Mercein.
Cuvier, G. (Baron). 1827. Essay on the theory of the earth. 5th ed. London: T. Cadell
Gillispie, C. C. 1996. Genesis and geology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Histoire des travaux de Georges Cuvier (3rd ed., Paris, 1858)
Larson, Edward J., Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory. The Modern Library: New York, 2004. ISBN 0-679-64288-9
CL Laurillard, "Cuvier," Biographie universelle, supp. vol. 61 (1836)
Lee, Mrs. R. 1833. Memoirs of Baron Cuvier. London: Longman, Reese, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
McCarthy, E.M. 2008. Macroevolution: The Origin of New Life Forms.
Dorinda Outram, Georges Cuvier: Vocation, Science and Authority in Post-Revolutionary France (Palgrave Macmillan, 1984)
Pietro Corsi, Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789, et sur leur état actuel, présenté à Sa Majesté l'Empereur et Roi, en son Conseil d'État, le 6 février 1808, par la classe des sciences physiques et mathématiques de l'Institut... conformément à l'arrêté du gouvernement du 13 ventôse an X (Paris, 2005)
Russell, E. S. 1982. Form and function: A contribution to the history of animal morphology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Philippe Taquet, Georges Cuvier, Naissance d'un Génie; 539 pages; Ed. Odile jacob, Paris, 2006; ISBN 2-7381-0969-1 (in French)
Rudwick, Martin J.S. Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes (The University of Chicago Press, 1997) ISBN 0-226-73106-5
Zimmer, Carl, Evolution:the triumph of an idea Harper Perennial New York 2006 ISBN 0-06-113840-1External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Georges Cuvier
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Georges Cuvier
Berkeley Biography
Victorian Web Bio
Infoscience
English translation of Discourses
Cuvier's principle of the correlation of parts
Cuvier's Elegy of Lamarck
English translation of Règne animal
Georges Cuvier at Find a Grave
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vedi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Cuvier
NOTE
Cuvier Georges
Georg Kuefer
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Le patronyme Cuvier semble venir d'un nom de la commune Cuvier (39).La famille CUVIER semble venir de la commune de Cuvier dans le Jura et s'installe dans la région de Montbéliard (25) depuis au moins le XVIème siècle.
CUVIER
I - Jean Nicolas CUVIER est né vers 1712 à Blamont (25). Il est Pasteur. Le 28.08.1736, à Montécheroux (25), il épouse Suzanne Henriette DORIOT, née le 11.08.1712 à Blamont, fille de Pierre DORIOT, Pasteur, et de Suzanne FERRAND. Suzanne décède le 31.07.1786 aux Roches-les-Blamont (25), et Jean en 1792.
I.1 - Pierre Nicolas CUVIER est né vers 1739 aux Roches-les-Blamont (25). Il est Pasteur. Le 24.04.1764 à Montbéliard (25), il épouse Suzanne Elisabeth BONSEN, née le 2305.1740 à Montbéliard, fille de Léopold Eberhard BONSEN, Pasteur, et d'Hedwige TITOT. Suzanne décède le 29.03.1784 à Brévilliers. En secondes noces, Pierre épouse Suzanne Elisabeth FLAMAND. Pierre décède le 16.09.1827 à Beaucourt (90).
I.1.1 - Louis Christophe CUVIER est né le 07.11.1768 à Brévilliers (70). Il est pasteur. Le 21.05.1794 à Etupes (25), il épouse Marie Catherine WILD, née le 24.03.1772 à Montbéliard (25), fille de Pierre Caspard WILD, marchand, et d'Elisabeth BONSEN. Marie Catherine décède le 23.01.1811 à Montbéliard. En secondes noces, Louis épouse Madeleine CUVIER. Louis décède le 14.05.1849 à Brévilliers.
I.1.1.1 - Charles Christ Léopold CUVIER est né le 24.10.1798 à Seloncourt (25). Il est pasteur, aumônier au lycée Louis-le-Grand puis professeur d'histoire et de grec. Le 30.12.1824 à Hérimoncourt (25), il épouse Amélie PEUGEOT, née le 16.02.1806 à Hérimoncourt, fille de Charles Christophe PEUGEOT et de Catherine JAPY. Amélie décède le 14.08.1834 à Strasbourg (37). Le 02.10.1839 à Audincourt, en secondes noces, Charles épouse sa belle-sœur Pauline PEUGEOT, née le 24.01.1808 à Hérimoncourt. Charles décède le 17.04.1881 à Montbéliard (25) et Pauline le 22.03.1903 à Vevey (CH).
I.1.1.1.1 - Clémentine CUVIER est née le 15.01.1831 à Strasbourg (67). Le 04.08.1859 à Strasbourg, elle épouse Conrad KILIAN, Professeur, né le 07.08.1823 à Crelingen (D), fils de Conrad KILIAN, savonnier, et de Marguerite HOFFMAN. Conrad décède le 16.03.1904 et Clémentine le 13.05.1909, tous deux à Grenoble (38).
II - Jean Georges CUVIER est né le 13.03.1716 à Blamont (25). Il est Capitaine de Régiment de Suisses. Le 22.11.1763 aux Roches-les-Blamond, il épouse Anne Catherine CHATEL, née le 04.07.1736 à Montbéliard, fille de Jules Frédéric CHATEL, Inspecteur des vignes, et de Catherine Elisabeth PROPRE. En 1792, Catherine décède et en 1797, Georges vient à Paris avec son fils Frédéric. Georges décède le 26.05.1799 à Paris 12ème ancien.
II.1 - Georges CUVIER décède en bas-âge en 1767.
II.2 - Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Dagobert Georges CUVIER est né le 23.08.1769 à Montbéliard. Il est naturaliste. En avril 1795, il vient à Paris, et prend la suppléance de MERTRUD au Jardin des Plantes, et y donne des cours d'anatomie comparée. Le 02.02.1804, il épouse Anne Marie COQUET de TRAZAIL, née en 1764, veuve de Louis Philippe DUVAUCEL, fermier général guillotiné en 1794. Ils ont 4 enfants dont 3 morts en bas-âge. Georges est fait Baron en 1820. Georges décède le 13.05.1832 à Paris et est inhumé au cimetière du Père-Lachaise, 8ème division. Anne Marie décède en 1849.
II.2.1 - Clémentine CUVIER décède à l'âge de 22 ans.
II.3 - Georges Frédéric CUVIER est né le 28.06.1773 à Montbéliard. Il commence son apprentissage d'horloger avant d'être appelé par son frère. En 1797, il vient à Paris où il suit des cours de physique, de chimie et d'histoire naturelle Le 30.12.1802, il épouse Christine Charlotte MACLER, née à Sarrebruck, fille d'un pasteur de Montbéliard. Christine décède l'année suivante après avoir mis un garçon au monde. Frédéric prend, en 1804, la direction de la ménagerie du Muséum. Frédéric décède le 24.07.1838 à Strasbourg (67). Frédéric est inhumé au cimetière de Strasbourg mais son coeur est inhumé au cimetière du Père-Lachaise, 8ème division, à Paris, près de son frère Georges.
II.3.1 - Charles Frédéric Georges CUVIER est né le 09.10.1803 à Paris. Le 02.06.1852, il épouse Constance Stéphanie FARINE, fille du Général Pierre Joseph FARINE de CREUX et veuve du Général de BRACK. Charles est Membre du Conseil d'Etat, Deuxième Sous-Gouverneur de la Banque de France du 30.04.1866 au 19.10.1867 puis Premier Sous-Gouverneur de la Banque de France du 19.10.1867 à 1889. Frédéric décède le 09.10.1893 à Paris, 22
rue Clément Marot. Il est inhumé au cimetière du Père-Lachaise.II.3.1.1 - (Fille) CUVIER épouse CHOLLET.
II.3.1.2 - (Fille) CUVIER épouse CHABERT.
III - (Fils) CUVIER.
III.1 - Jacques Christophe CUVIER est pasteur à Etupes (25).
III.1.1 - Rodolphe Eberhard Nicolas CUVIER est né en 1785 à Etupes (25). Il est pasteur et professeur à Nancy puis Paris. Il décède le 30.07.1867 à Montbéliard (25).
III.1.1.1 - Othon CUVIER est né le 06.11.1812 à Nancy (54). Il est pasteur. Il décède le 08.11.1896 à Nancy.
Circa le tombe
Paris - Cimetière du Père-Lachaise
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Reposent aussi dans la même sépulture :
Frédéric Cuvier (1772-1838) auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur l’Histoire Naturelle, directeur de la Ménagerie du Muséum, inspecteur général, membre de l’Académie des sciences, professeur de physiologie au Muséum (seul son cœur
est dans cette tombe).
Frédéric-Georges Cuvier (1803-1893) conseiller d’Etat, sous-gouverneur de la Banque de France.Cette concession est entretenue par les soins du Consistoire de l’église réformée de la confession d’Augsbourg suite à un legs en sa faveur, avec l’approbation du Président de la République.
ricerca di Alberto Masi
Cronologia Ornitologica