The foundation of paleontology as a science dates back to the work of Georges Cuvier in 1796.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent scholarly and encyclopedic sources corroborate Cuvier's 1796 paper on elephant/mammoth species as foundational to paleontology, though publication date is sometimes cited as 1800 due to delayed formal publication. [cascade flags: aggregator_dropped_primary_exists | tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- Paleontology (wikipedia)
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309321774_Georges_Cuvier_and_establishment_of_the_paleontology_as_a_science (corroboration)
- https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2015/10/proving-extinction-cuvier-and-the-elephantimorpha (corroboration)
- http://scihi.org/georges-cuvier/ (corroboration)