Zoologist and naturalist Georges Cuvier was born in Montbeliard, France on August 23, 1769 to Jean George Cuvier, a lieutenant in the Swiss Guards and Anne Clémence Chatel. His fascination with natural history was ignited by an encounter at the age of 10 with a copy of Gesner's Historiae Animalium. He laid the foundations of the sciences of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils.
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