SCIENCE OF FOSSIL LIFE 325 
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 Paleontology.—The 
interesting discovery that the fossil relics in the Eocene rocks 
