Georges Cuvier

Hence the same instant which killed the animals froze the country where they lived. This event was sudden, instantaneous, without any gradual development. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

#country #development #event #gradual #hence

It is evident that one cannot say anything demonstrable about the problem before having resolved these preliminary questions, and yet we hardly possess the necessary information to solve some of them. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

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My object will be, first, to show by what connections the history of the fossil bones of land animals is linked to the theory of the earth and why they have a particular importance in this respect. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

#connections #earth #first #fossil #history

Secondly, the nature of the revolutions which have altered the surface of the earth must have had a more decisive effect on the terrestrial quadrupeds than on the marine animals. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

#decisive #earth #effect #had #marine

The older the layers, the more each of them is uniform over a great extent; the newer the layers, the more they are limited and subject to variation within small distances. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

#each #extent #great #great extent #layers

Thus it cannot be denied that the masses which today form our highest mountains were originally in a liquid state; for a long time they were covered by waters which did not sustain any life. ↗

— Georges Cuvier

#cannot #covered #denied #did #form