A geological theory that explained the creation of the physical features of Earth as the result of sudden, violent acts. Its major advocate during the 18th century was the French naturalist Baron Georges cuvier. Cuvier was best known as a comparative anatomist, who reconstructed fossil species from their partial remains. Cuvier was able to prove, from his reconstructions, that some animals that had once existed had become extinct. At the same time, his examination of rock formations around Paris showed that there were distinct breaks in the rocks, representing a great physical change in Earth’s his¬ tory. Cuvier found that each of these breaks was associated with the extinction of some fossil species. He concluded that each of these extinctions was the result of a great catastrophe. New species were divinely created or migrated from unaffected areas after each catastrophe.
Cuvier’s theory won support from religious thinkers because it seemed to support the biblical view of history. However, as the 19th century progressed, Cuvier’s views were replaced by those of the Uniformitarianists including the English theorists James Hutton and Sir Charles Lyell who believed the Earth was so old that there was enough time for great changes to have happened gradually. The uniformitarians recognized that natural disasters, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, occurred, but they believed that such catastrophes only affected small areas. By the late 19th century, catastrophism had largely been discarded in favor of the theory of gradual processes.