Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this collection of his geological and osteological papers, focusing on living and extinct pachyderms, ruminants, horses and pigs. Volume 1 begins with a substantial essay on human origins and the formation of the earth, which was translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1813 (also available). It also includes an essay on the Egyptian ibis mummy brought back from Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and an updated version of Cuvier's influential 1810 geological description of the Paris basin, co-authored with Alexandre Brogniart (1770–1847), which helped establish the principle of faunal succession in rock strata of different ages.
- ISBN13 9781108083751
- Publish Date 12 March 2015
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 13 June 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Cambridge University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 476
- Language English