VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 219 



but six days, and occurring but four millenniums before 

 the time of Christ, the appearance of the remains of 

 creatures in the rocks, the like of which no man ever saw 

 alive, must have given scope to the wildest imaginings 

 concerning their origin and significance; for many 

 believed that not only had no new forms been added to 

 the world's fauna since the creation, except possibly by 

 hybridizing, but that none had become extinct save a very 

 few through the agency of human interference. The 

 supposition was, therefore, that such creatures as were 

 thus discovered were still extant in some more remote 

 fastnesses of the world. Thus, our second president, 

 Thomas Jefferson, who wrote one of the first papers on 

 American fossil vertebrates, published in 1798, discussed 

 therein the remains of a huge ground-sloth which has 

 since borne the name Megalonyx jeffersoni. Jefferson, 

 however, described the great claws as pertaining to a 

 huge leonine animal which he firmly believed was yet 

 living among the mountains of Virginia. 



Cuvier (1769-1832) has been spoken of as the founder 

 of our science. His opportunity lay in the profusion of 

 bones buried in the gypsum deposits of Montmartre 

 within the environs of the city of Paris. Cuvier 's 

 studies of these remains, done in the light of his very 

 broad anatomical knowledge, enabled him to prepare the 

 first reconstructions of fossil vertebrates ever attempted 

 and to bring before the eyes of his contemporaries a 

 world peopled with forms which were utterly extinct. 

 That these creatures were no longer living, none was a 

 better judge than Cuvier, for his prominence was such 

 that material was sent him from all parts of the world, to 

 which must be added that which he saw in his visits to 

 the various museums of Europe. He felt it safe, there- 

 fore, to affirm the unlikelihood of any further discovery 

 of unknown forms among the great mammals of the pres- 

 ent fauna of our globe, and few indeed have been the 

 additions since his day. To Cuvier is due not alone the 

 masterly contribution to the sister sciences of compara- 

 tive anatomy and vertebrate paleontology the Osse- 

 ments Fossiles (1812) but he also announced the 

 presence in continental strata of a series of faunas which 

 showed a gradual organic improvement from the earliest 



