Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769 – May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. He was a major figure in scientific circles in Paris during 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 that extinction was a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing early evolutionary theories. His most famous work is the Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation (1817; translated into English as The Animal Kingdom). He died in Paris of cholera.
Georges Cuvier About the writings of Joseph Banks, as stated in Cavendish: The Experimental Life, by Christa Jungnickel and Russell McCormmach (1999, pg. 461).