SCIENCE OF FOSSIL LIFE 327 
exclusively to Cuvier. Associated with his name as co- 
founders are those of Lamarck and William Smith. Lamarck, 
that quiet, forceful thinker who for so many years worked 
by the side of Cuvier, founded the science of invertebrate 
paleontology. 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 paleontology 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 
