George's Cuvier's Influence on Natural Selection

I believe the individual who had the most interesting and positive influence on Charles Darwin's development of his theory of natural selection is Georges Cuvier.


Georges Cuvier was a French naturalist and zoologist who was well known for determining that extinction was a fact. Cuvier was very impressed with the geological past of Earth and its species and what was left behind. The fossils remains found my Cuvier led him to believe that there was life living on earth way before us but was destroyed by some type of catastrophe. This led Cuviery to the theory of catastrophism which is based on the slow changes over time after a specific organism is killed and replaeced by new life form. In regards to ayers article, on the "Influential Theories of Evolution from the 18th Century." Fossil remains lead Cuvier to believe in the "existence of a previous world to ours" that was "destroyed by some kind of catastrophe." (Ayers)

Cuvier was one of the leading experts in the anatomy of animals which allowed him to study fossils with ease. He compared living animals bone structure with fossils, giving him a firm belief that each part of a specific organism or species contributed to a well balanced functional structure of the individual organism which set it apart from other organisms. This led to his most famous work, the "Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation" ( translated in English as The Animal Kingdom) which was more so a classification of animals. Cuvier's accomplishments, in particular his studies of fossils, and earths geological story, showed the connection between animals and the in between changes over time.



The bullet points that relates most to Cuvier's work is, "If the environment changes , the traits that's are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different."
This speaks to his work the most in regards to his principle of the "correlation of parts" as stated in Britannica, which states the anatomical structure of every organ is functionally related to all other organs in the body of an animal, and the functional and structural characteristics of organs result from their interaction with their environment. Moreover, according to Cuvier, the functions and habits of an animal determine its anatomical form. (Britannica) This clearly states that each species is structured just right according to their environment down to their organs, that it could not survive epic change. So overtime as the environment changes the species changes to adapt to their new environment.


I personally do not believe that Darwin could have devolped his theory of natural selection without the influence of Cuvier. Darwin used Cuvier's fact and studies on extinction to further his ideas on how species change over thousands of years to accommodate their current environment, which helped shape the idea of natural selection. Darwin had his theories and yes, he possibly would have figured out the idea of evolution but not it was until Cuvier's facts on extinction that helped Darwin begin his studies on evolution.


Darwin's ideas did challenge religious beliefs concerning his theory on evolution and the clashing with the belief of creation. Darwin's theory did not go hand in hand with creationism, proven with his writings in The Origin of Species. His book was thought of as a "replacement" of divine creation with evolution and natural selection which did not go over well with the church.
Darwin understood that his work would probably be seen as a threat to traditional religious beliefs because his theory contradicted many of the core teaching of the catholic faith.





1. Ayers. Before Charles Darwin: Influential Theories of Evolution from the 18th Century.

http://bound.unm.edu/2014/02/11/charles-darwin-influential-theories-evolution-18th-century/



2. Britannica. Georges Cuvier French zoologist.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/147625/Georges-Cuvier