Ice Age Neanderthals (Humans: An Evolutionary History)

“Fossil man does not exist,” declared Georges Cuvier, one of the fore most French scientists of the early nineteenth century.1 Cuvier’s spe cialty was anatomy, the study of the physical structure of living things. In the course of his work he had examined the fossils of many crea tures that no longer existed, such as extinct species of elephants. Cuvier knew that fossils had revealed life-forms from the past that were different from those of the present. He explained these differ ences by saying that a series of huge disasters or catastrophes had wiped out the ancient life-forms, leaving only traces of them as fossils. Humans did not exist until after the last catastrophe, according to Cuvier. He also believed that species did not change, which meant that the first humans must have been exactly like modern humans. For these reasons Cuvier was sure that there could be no such thing as a human Georges Cuvier examines one of the many fossils he collected. None, he was convinced, could be of a human being.