Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (August 2, 1672 - June 23, 1733) was a Swiss scholar, fossil collector and diluvialist (believed the earth's surface was shaped by the biblical flood). He claimed that a fossilized skeleton found in a Baden quarry was the remains of a human who had perished in the deluge. This claim, which seemed to verify the claims of Christian scripture, was accepted for several decades after Scheuchzer's death, until 1811, when French naturalist Georges Cuvier re-examined the specimen and showed that it was actually a large prehistoric salamander. He died in 1733 at the age of 60.