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These observations convinced Darwin that some form of evolution had taken place. He also discovered fossils of large extinct South American mammals, such as the giant sluggard. These discoveries were hard to explain based on the sacred Deluge or the catastrophe theory, which Cuvier adhered to. This, and the conviction that the forming of land came about by means of a mechanism of gradual change, gave cause to Darwin to actually see such a gradual change as the relationship between living and fossil organisms. However, his theory lacked an explanation for the driving force behind these changes.
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