Editing Georges Cuvier (section)

=== Age of reptiles ===
[[File:Rozprawa o přewratech kůry zemnj, Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[Ichthyosaurus]]'' and ''[[Plesiosaurus]]'' from the 1834 Czech edition of Cuvier's ''Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe'']]
In 1800 and working only from a drawing, Cuvier was the first to correctly identify in print, a fossil found in Bavaria as a small flying reptile,<ref name="cuvier1801">{{harvnb|Cuvier|1801}}</ref> which he named the ''Ptero-Dactyle'' in 1809,<ref name="cuvier1809">{{harvnb|Cuvier|1809}}</ref> (later Latinized as ''[[Pterodactylus]] antiquus'')—the first known member of the diverse order of [[pterosaur]]s. In 1808 Cuvier identified a fossil found in [[Maastricht]] as a giant marine lizard, the first known [[mosasaur]].<ref name="Cuvier1808">{{cite journal|language=French|author=Georges Cuvier|title=Sur le grand animal fossile des carrières de Maestricht|trans-title=On the great fossil animal of the quarries of Maastricht|journal=Annales du Muséum d'Histoire naturelle|year=1808|volume=12|pages=145–176|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/91672#page/148/mode/1up}}</ref>

Cuvier speculated correctly that there had been a time when [[reptile]]s rather than [[mammal]]s had been the dominant fauna.<ref>{{harvnb|Rudwick|1997|p=158}}</ref> This speculation was confirmed over the two decades following his death by a series of spectacular finds, mostly by English geologists and fossil collectors such as [[Mary Anning]], [[William Conybeare (geologist)|William Conybeare]], [[William Buckland]], and [[Gideon Mantell]], who found and described the first [[ichthyosaur]]s, [[plesiosaur]]s, and [[dinosaur]]s.