Georges Cuvier

French naturalist and zoologist, often called the founding father of paleontology, who established extinction as a scientific fact when many contemporaries held it to be speculation. His study of the Paris basin strata with Alexandre Brongniart established the basic principles of biostratigraphy, and his proposal that extinct species had been wiped out by periodic catastrophic flooding made him the most influential proponent of catastrophism in early 19th century geology. His record also carries a serious stain: his racial studies provided part of the foundation for scientific racism, including his treatment of Sarah Baartman. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/