Jean-Leopold Curvier

It wasn’t until the time of revolution in France that the concept of extinction got attention when naturalist Jean-Leopold Cuvier of the Museum of Natural History in Paris began to study the American mastodon. Curvier was a visionary and saw the tragedy that lay ahead for Earth and all its species including man.

Bones of a mastodon were first discovered in what is now the Ohio Valley in the United States. Through a sequence of events, the bones wound up in Paris, France and 50 years after being discovered Curvier began conducting research on the fossils. Although some scientists were certain that the subject of much controversy, it was Cuvier who first concluded that the fossil bones did not belong to elephants as was widely believed. He wondered what happened to the enormous animals and referred to them as a lost species. He took note of...