SCIENCE OF FOSSIL REMAINS 327 



speak more at length of the discoveries upon which Cuvier 

 passed his opinion. In the gypsum rocks about Paris the 

 workmen had been turning up to the light bones of enormous 

 size. While the workmen could recognize that they were 

 bones of some monsters, they were entirely at loss to imagine 

 to what kind of animals they had belonged, but the opinion 

 was frequently expressed that they were the bones of human 

 giants. 



Cuvier, with his extensive preparation in comparative 

 anatomy, was the best fitted man perhaps in all the world 

 to pass judgment upon these particular bones. He went 

 to the quarries and, after observing the remains, he saw 

 very clearly that they were different from the bones of any 

 animals now existing. His great knowledge of comparative 

 anatomy was founded on a comprehensive study of the bony 

 system as well as the other structures of all classes of living 

 animals. He was familiar with the anatomy of elephants, 

 and when he examined the large bones brought to light in the 

 quarries of Montmartre, he saw that he was confronted with 

 the bones of elephant-like animals, but animals differing in 

 their anatomy from those at present living on the earth. 



The great feature of Cuvier' s investigations was that he 

 instituted comparisons on a broad scale between fossil re- 

 mains and living animals. It was not merely that he fol- 

 lowed the method of investigation employed by Steno; he 

 went much further and reached a new conclusion of great 

 importance. Not only was the nature of fossil remains 

 determined, but by comparing their structure with that of 

 living animals the astounding inference was drawn that the 

 fossil remains examined belonged to forms that were truly 

 extinct. This discovery marks an epoch in the development 

 of the knowledge of extinct animals. 



Cuvier the Founder of Vertebrate Palaeontology. — The 

 interesting discovery that the fossil relics in the Eocene rocks 



