Cuvier, Georges Leopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert -

(1769-1832). A pioneer of paleontology, this French zoologist and statesman began his studies in business administration at the Academie Caroline in Stuttgart but subsequently became an expert in natural sciences while making a living as a private instructor in Normandy. A leading vertebrate expert of his time, Cuvier wrote a formal description of the now extinct mammoth as a zoological species and applied fossils in stratigraphy. He also believed in immutability of species. He was a professor of natural history at the Ecole Centrale in Paris and a professor for anatomy at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris in 1795. He became Chancellor of the University of Paris in 1814 and a member of the Académie Française in 1818. In 1819 Cuvier received the title of baron.