FastSaying

Why has not anyone seen that fossils alone gave birth to a theory about the formation of the earth, that without them, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the globe.

Related Quotes

It is evident that one cannot say anything demonstrable about the problem before having resolved these preliminary questions, and yet we hardly possess the necessary information to solve some of them.
— Georges Cuvier
AboutAnythingBefore
But the revolutions and changes which are responsible for the present state of the earth are not limited to the upsetting of the ancient strata and to the ebbing of the sea after the formations of new layers.
— Georges Cuvier
AfterAncientChanges
Secondly, the nature of the revolutions which have altered the surface of the earth must have had a more decisive effect on the terrestrial quadrupeds than on the marine animals.
— Georges Cuvier
AlteredAnimalsDecisive
Hence the same instant which killed the animals froze the country where they lived. This event was sudden, instantaneous, without any gradual development.
— Georges Cuvier
AnimalsAnyCountry
The older the layers, the more each of them is uniform over a great extent; the newer the layers, the more they are limited and subject to variation within small distances.
— Georges Cuvier
DistancesEachExtent