What is Georges Cuvier?
{{Infobox Scientist |name = Georges Cuvier |image = Georges Cuvier.jpg |image_size = 200px |caption = Georges Cuvier |birth_date = 23 August 1769 |birth_place = [[Montbéliard]] |death_date = 13 May 1832 |death_place = [[Paris]] |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = [[France|French]] |field = [[natural history]], [[paleontology]], [[anatomy]] |work_institutions = ''[[Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle]]'' |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = establishing [[extinction]], [[catastrophism]], opposition to [[evolution]], [[stratigraphy]] |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier''' (23 August 1769–13 May 1832), usually called '''Cuvier''', was a [[France|French]] [[natural history|naturalist]] and [[zoology|zoologist]].<ref>Outram, Dorinda 1984. ''Georges Cuvier: vocation, science and authority in post-revolutionary France''. London: Palgrave Macmillan.</ref> Cuvier was a very important figure in scientific circles in Paris during the early 19th century. He helped establish the fields of [[comparative anatomy]] and [[paleontology]] by comparing living animals with [[fossil]]s. He proved [[extinction]] was a fact. He was the most influential person believing in [[catastrophism]] in [[geology]] in the early 19th century. His most famous work is the ''Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation'' 1817; translated into English as ''The Animal Kingdom''. Cuvier was a member of the elite [[Académie française]] and the [[French Academy of Sciences]]. He is remembered for strongly opposing the [[evolutionary]] theories of [[Lamarck]] and [[Geoffroy]]. Cuvier believed there was no evidence for the evolution of organic forms, but there was evidence for successive creations after catastrophic [