This scientist's "beaked whale" can dive nearly 3,000 meters down, making it the deepest-diving marine mammal. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this "founding father of paleontology" who named the pterodactyl and mastodon. He opposed early evolutionary theories in a debate with Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (SANT hee-LAIR).
ANSWER: Georges Cuvier (koo-VYAY) [or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier]
[10e] Cuvier expanded on Linnaean taxonomy by grouping classes into four "embranchements" based on function, which evolved into this level of classification in between "kingdom" and "class."
ANSWER: phylum [or phyla]
[10m] Cuvier promoted this geologic view in which patterns of extinction correspond to rare, sudden changes in the environment rather than slow alterations over time.
ANSWER: catastrophism [or word forms such as catastrophic]
<June Yin , Science - Biology - Ecology/Evolution>