Gervais was born in Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine, and in 1835 he began palaeontological research as assistant in the laboratory of comparative anatomy at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

In 1848–1852 appeared his important work Zoologie et paléontologie françaises, supplementary to the palaeontological publications of Georges Cuvier and Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville; of this a second and greatly improved edition was issued in 1859.

In 1865 he accepted the professorship of zoology at the Sorbonne, vacant through the death of Louis Pierre Gratiolet; this post he left in 1868 for the chair of comparative anatomy at the Paris museum of natural history, the anatomical collections of which were greatly enriched by his exertions.

[1] According to Florentino Ameghino, Paul Gervais studied a fossil collection obtained from Juan Manuel de Rosas the governor of Buenos Aires.

[2] Gervais is commemorated in the vernacular and scientific names of the following taxa: Apart from the works mentioned previously he also wrote:[1]