Baron George Cuvier's Comparative Animal Anatomy

Le Règne animal distribue d’après son organisation by Baron George Cuvier is a collection of five volumes describing the species of the animal kingdom, organized by their relationships to one another. This is the second edition of the text, published in 1829, which appeared in its original form in 1817. All of the volumes include a small introduction to the volume’s specific subject, an index, and hundreds of entries including some for extinct species. There are no illustrations in the text volume, but a collection of accompanying plates and images was published separately in nine volumes by a friend of Cuvier.[1]

Baron George Cuvier (1769-1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. He was heavily influenced by the works of Linnaeus. He did extensive anatomical studies of both modern specimens and paleontological remains that he had found which were critical to confirmation of the theory of extinction. While he did not believe in evolution, his work and discoveries would be cited as evidence for the theories put forward by Darwin.[2]