Thunderbolts Forum v3.0

• "Plus: New species come into existence through symbiogenesis, not Darwinian incremental evolution.
  (This will burn your brain the way Jaynes did.)
  • Discover Interview: Lynn Margulis Says She's Not Controversial, She's Right
  If you are heading down a different path with this thread, I'll hold off adding to the thought. HA!"

He developed a theory that animals become extinct through natural catastrophe rather than through inability to adapt, and he proposed a doctrine of the immutability of species.

• Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), French naturalist, leader in founding the study of comparative anatomy and paleontology.
  
  Born in Montbeliard, then in the duchy of Wurttemberg, and educated at the Academy of Stuttgart, Cuvier became tutor to a noble French family. In 1795 he became an assistant in comparative anatomy at the Museum of Natural History in paris, and in 1796 he delivered one of the lectures at the opening of the National Institute. He was appointed professor of natural history at the College de France in 1799. He was also a councillor of the Imperial University and a councillor of state under Napoleon and later under Louis XVII. He was made a baron in 1831.
  
  He was the first to devise a systematic natural classification of the animal kingdom. His system, presented in a lecture in 1796, was published two years later. He expanded his classification in later work, dividing all animals into four great classes:
  • Articulata
    Radiata
    Vertebrata
    Molusca.
  He also studied the structure of the mollusks and the anatomy and osteology of fishes, mammals, and reptiles. He developed a theory that animals become extinct through natural catastrophe rather than through inability to adapt, and he proposed a doctrine of the immutability of species.
  
  This brought him into conflict with contemporary naturalists. His influence in France delayed acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution."