Geology Flashcards
(100 cards)
Living and Fossils Elephants is a writing about which famous scientist?
Cuvier
What historical events lead to the perfect situation for Cuvier to establish himself as a scientist in Paris?
The French Revolution and the end of the Reign of Terror
many well known and connected scientists had either fled Paris or been killed so the need to break into a well established network was diminished - kind of a blank slate for Cuvier to get into the field
How did the National Museum of Natural History in Paris survive the Reign of Terror according to Living and Fossils Elephants?
It reformed itself at the height of the revolution with a more politically correct position and renamed itself
How did Cuvier start at the National MoNH?
junior position as an understudy to Merstrud, an undistinguished prof of animal anatomy
How did Cuvier put his science on the map and establish himself as a force to be reckoned with (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
his concept of animals as machines, while not new, was much more focused and thorough on the functionality of animal machines
Who was the youngest member of the First Class at the Museum of NH (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
Cuvier, after his inaugural lecture
What types of animals did Cuvier work on at the NMoNH?
He began with continuing his studies on anatomy of the poorly understood invertebrates (molluscs specifically) then changed to vertebrates and mammals
eventually he came to address questions about fossils
What was the major question Cuvier eventually came to trying to address?
While it was not a new question, he also came to wonder: how was it possible that large fossil bones and teeth were being discovered in northern latitudes in deposits close to ground surface when these animals were known to be inhabitants of tropical (lower latitude) areas?
Which large mammal bones were being discovered in northern latitudes?
elephants and rhinos
Which known scientists were contributing largely to the debate about the fossils before Cuvier (Living and Fossils Elephants)?
Louis Jean Marie Daubenton (1716-99): a professor of mineralogy at the museum who had been a major contributor to the fossil debate prior to the revolution
George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-88): fossils were a key component to his theory of the earth
What was Cuvier’s major empirical advantage over his predecessors?
spoils from the revolution included major natural history collections of the former ruler of the conquered Netherlands
What did the Netherlands natural history collection provide for Cuvier?
in addition to the collection at the museum, it allowed him to confirm his hypothesis that the living African elephant was not the same as the Indian elephant which had been previously thought
AND that the fossil elephant, or ‘mammoth’ was also different from both the living Indian and African elephant
Did Cuvier include a discussion or acceptance of evolutionary theory in his description/reporting of the 3 elephant species?
he dismissed the idea that the differences between the 3 species may be due to the transformation of one into the others (evolution) - a concept being actively debated in Paris - he did this almost passively
What was significant, or what did Cuvier know was significant, about his work to the field of geology?
he knew his comparative anatomy provided more solid evidence and a stronger argument for the theory of the earth or geology
How did Cuvier’s comparative anatomy of the 3 elephant species undermine Buffon’s ‘Theory of the earth’ ?
Buffon had argued that the earth originated from some very hot celestial body in space which had cooled gradually and that the bones in northern latitudes but the presence of elephants in tropical latitudes were because they had to move to seek warmer climates
Cuvier undermined the argument of the earth cooling and the animals moving because he determined the mammoth was a different species altogether which may have had adapted to different climates such as the cold one where its bones were found
Which new problems arose from Cuvier’s argument?
most importantly: what caused the difference between all the known fossil species and those alive today?
How did Cuvier dramaticize his claim about the distinction between fossils and living species?
He made the sweeping claim that fossils were completely distinct species from living ones and that this also extends to marine organisms, as well as terrestrial
What was the counter argument to Cuvier’s inclusion of marine organisms in his fossil v. extant organisms argument?
conchologists rejected his idea that fossils are different species entirely from extant because they had found that marine molluscs had exact ‘analogues’ among fossils
What did Cuvier claim about the origin of the world/the earth’s prehuman history and origin?
without a sufficient argument, he thought that the world had been ‘destroyed’ by a sudden catastrophic event - this theme was pervasive throuhgout the rest of his work
What evidence did Cuvier discuss for his claim that the living and fossil elephants were different species?
molar teeth of elephants
elephant skulls with teeth
fossils of mammoths (tusks)
comparative anatomy!
What branch of science is Cuvier best known for?
comparative anatomy
T or F: Cuvier determined that comparative anatomy is an essential tool to support geology
true
What type of questions were at the root of geology? give examples
practical and theoretical
ex.
where can we find minerals and metals?
how did mountains form?
where do rivers come from?
what are fossils?
how did earth form? was it divine creation or natural?
What terrestrial phenomenon did Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation explain that was previously inexplicable?
the daily tides
