Mémoire sur les espèces d’éléphans vivantes et fossiles.

Using comparative anatomy, Cuvier demonstrated that the African elephant was a separate species from the Indian elephant, and that the fossil or “mammoth” elephant was yet another species distinct from the two living varieties. This was the first scientific proof of extinct species. Cuvier first read this paper on January 21, 1796 at an ordinary meeting of the Institut National in Paris in 1796, and then again on April 4 at the first of the Institut’s quarterly public meetings. For the April 4 meeting Cuvier prepared an extract of his paper which was published in the Magasin encyclopédique (2. année 3 [1796]: 440-445). Cuvier’s full report, updated and illustrated with five plates, was first published in 1799. In his autobiography Cuvier stated that this was the paper in which he first expressed his views on extinct animals.