Geologist who studied the strata and discovered that organisms deeper in the strata were most dissimilar to current living forms. also wrongly concluded that this was from catastrophic events and surrounding organisms repopulated the strata.

The correct answer is George Cuvier.
He is a French zoologist who is considered to be the "father of palaeontology". He was one of the first scientists to study and try to classify fossils. He studied different strata in areas outside Paris and he observed that fossils found in older strata had very different form than the living organisms or the fossils found in more recent strata. He proposed that this observation could be explained by catastrophism, the theory that great changes in Earth's crust have been a product of sudden and catastrophic events. According to this explanation, the difference between each strata represents a catastrophic event which killed many of the species living then.

Any extreme heat or flames.