SCIENCE OF FOSSIL LIFE 3 2 7 



exclusively to Cuvier. Associated with his name as co- 

 founders are those of Lamarck and \Yilliam Smith. Lamarck, 

 that quiet, forceful thinker who for so many years worked 

 by the side of Cuvier, founded the science of invertebrate 

 palaeontology. The large bones with which Cuvier worked 

 were more easy to be recognized as unique or as belonging 

 to extinct animals than the shells which occurred in abundance 

 in the rocks about Paris. The latter were more difficult to 

 place in their true position because the number of forms 

 of life in the sea is very extended and very diverse. Just as 

 Cuvier was a complete master of knowledge regarding verte- 

 brate organization, so Lamarck was equally a master of that 

 vast domain of animal forms which are of a lower grade 

 of organization the invertebrates. From his study of the 

 collections of shells and other invertebrate forms from the 

 rocks, Lamarck created invertebrate palaeontology and this, 

 coupled with the work of Cuvier, formed the foundations of 

 the entire field. 



Lamarck's study of the extinct invertebrates led him to 

 conclusions widely at variance with those of Cuvier. Instead 

 of thinking of a series of catastrophes, he saw that not all of 

 the forms of life belonging to one geological period became 

 extinct, but that some of them were continued into the suc- 

 ceeding period. He saw, therefore, that the succession of 

 life in the rocks bore testimony to a long series of gradual 

 changes upon the earth's surface, and did not in any way 

 indicate the occurrence of catastrophes. The changes, ac- 

 cording to the views of Lamarck, were all knit together into 

 a continuous process, and his conception of the origin of life 

 upon the earth grew and expanded until it culminated in the 

 elaboration of the first consistent theory of evolution. 



These two men, Lamarck and Cuvier, form a contrast 

 as to the favors distributed by fortune : Cuvier, picturesque, 

 highly honored, the favorite of princes, advanced to the 



