Alcide d'Orbigny
Encyclopedia
Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (September 6, 1802 - June 30, 1857) was a French
naturalist
who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology
(including malacology
), palaeontology, geology
, archaeology
and anthropology
.
D'Orbigny was born in Couëron
(Loire-Atlantique
), the son of a ship's physician and amateur naturalist. The family moved to La Rochelle
in 1820, where his interest in natural history was developed while studying the marine fauna and especially the microscopic creatures that he named "foraminifera
ns".
In Paris
he became a disciple of the geologist Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier
(1777-1861) and Georges Cuvier
. All his life, he would follow the theory of Cuvier and stay opposed to Lamarckism
.
between 1826 and 1833. He visited Brazil
, Argentina
, Paraguay
, Chile
, Bolivia
and Peru
and returned to France with an enormous collection of more than 10,000 natural history specimens. He described part of his findings in La Relation du Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale pendant les annés 1826 à 1833 (Paris, 1824-47, in 90 fascicles. His contemporary, Charles Darwin
called this book "one of the great monuments of science in the 19th century". The other specimens were described by zoologists at the museum. He had numerous interactions with Darwin, and named certain species after Darwin; for example d'Orbigny assigned the common name Darwin's rhea
to the South American bird Rhea pennata.
In 1840, d'Orbigny started the methodical description of French fossil
s and published La Paléontologie Française (8 vols). In 1849 he published a closely related Prodrome de Paléontologie Stratigraphique, intended as a "Preface to Stratigraphic Palaeontology", in which he described almost 18,000 species, and with biostratigraphical comparisons erected geological stages, the definitions of which rest on their stratotypes.
In 1853 he became professor of palaeontology at the Paris Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
, publishing his Cours élémentaire that related paleontology
to zoology
, as a science independent of the uses made of it in stratigraphy
. The chair of paleontology was created especially in his honor. The d’Orbigny collection is housed in the Salle d'Orbigny and is often visited by experts.
He described as first the geological timescales and defined numerous geological strata, still used today as chronostratigraphic
reference such as Toarcian, Callovian, Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, Aptian
, Albian
and Cenomanian
. He died in the small town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine
, near Paris.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
(including malacology
Malacology
Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology which deals with the study of the Mollusca , the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, octopus and squid, and numerous other kinds, many of which have shells...
), palaeontology, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
.
D'Orbigny was born in Couëron
Couëron
Couëron is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.Couëron is one of the 24 communes of the Urban Community of Nantes.-Geography:...
(Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...
), the son of a ship's physician and amateur naturalist. The family moved to La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
in 1820, where his interest in natural history was developed while studying the marine fauna and especially the microscopic creatures that he named "foraminifera
Foraminifera
The Foraminifera , or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists which are among the commonest plankton species. They have reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net...
ns".
In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
he became a disciple of the geologist Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier
Louis Cordier
Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier was a French geologist and mineralogist, and a founder of the French Geological Society...
(1777-1861) and Georges Cuvier
Georges Cuvier
Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
. All his life, he would follow the theory of Cuvier and stay opposed to Lamarckism
Lamarckism
Lamarckism is the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring . It is named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories...
.
South American era
D'Orbigny travelled on a mission for the Paris Museum, in South AmericaSouth America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
between 1826 and 1833. He visited Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and returned to France with an enormous collection of more than 10,000 natural history specimens. He described part of his findings in La Relation du Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale pendant les annés 1826 à 1833 (Paris, 1824-47, in 90 fascicles. His contemporary, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
called this book "one of the great monuments of science in the 19th century". The other specimens were described by zoologists at the museum. He had numerous interactions with Darwin, and named certain species after Darwin; for example d'Orbigny assigned the common name Darwin's rhea
Darwin's Rhea
Darwin's Rhea, Rhea pennata, also known as the Lesser Rhea, is a large flightless bird, but the smaller of the two extant species of rheas. It is found in the Altiplano and Patagonia in South America.-Description:...
to the South American bird Rhea pennata.
1840 and later
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s and published La Paléontologie Française (8 vols). In 1849 he published a closely related Prodrome de Paléontologie Stratigraphique, intended as a "Preface to Stratigraphic Palaeontology", in which he described almost 18,000 species, and with biostratigraphical comparisons erected geological stages, the definitions of which rest on their stratotypes.
In 1853 he became professor of palaeontology at the Paris Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Muséum national d'histoire naturelle
The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.- History :The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution...
, publishing his Cours élémentaire that related paleontology
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
to zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
, as a science independent of the uses made of it in stratigraphy
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....
. The chair of paleontology was created especially in his honor. The d’Orbigny collection is housed in the Salle d'Orbigny and is often visited by experts.
He described as first the geological timescales and defined numerous geological strata, still used today as chronostratigraphic
Chronostratigraphy
Chronostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy that studies the age of rock strata in relation to time.The ultimate aim of chronostratigraphy is to arrange the sequence of deposition and the time of deposition of all rocks within a geological region, and eventually, the entire geologic record of...
reference such as Toarcian, Callovian, Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, Aptian
Aptian
The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous epoch or series and encompasses the time from 125.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 112.0 ± 1.0 Ma , approximately...
, Albian
Albian
The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch/series. Its approximate time range is 112.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 99.6 ± 0.9 Ma...
and Cenomanian
Cenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...
. He died in the small town of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine
Pierrefitte-sur-Seine
Pierrefitte-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis department and Île-de-France region of France. Today forming part of the northern suburbs of Paris, Pierrefitte lies from the centre of the French capital.- Heraldry :-Transport:...
, near Paris.
Taxa
The following zoological taxa, genera and species, were named in his honor :- Nerocila orbignyi (Guérin, 1832)
- Alcidia Bourguignat, 1889
- Ampullaria dorbignyana Philippi, 1851
- Pinna dorbignyi Hanley, 1858
- Haminoea orbignyanaHaminoeaHaminoea is a genus of medium-sized sea snails or bubble snails, marine opisthobranch gastropod molluscs in the family Haminoeidae, the haminoea bubble snails, part of the clade Cephalaspidea, the headshield slugs and bubble snails....
A. de Férussac, 1822 - Pink CuttlefishSepiidaeSepiidae is a family of cephalopods in the order Sepiida.-Classification:*Order Sepiida: cuttlefish**Family Sepiadariidae**Family Sepiidae***Genus Metasepia****Metasepia pfefferi, Pfeffer's Flamboyant Cuttlefish...
, Sepia orbignyana Férussac, 1826 - Orbignya speciosa (Mart. ex Spreng.) Barb.Rodr. - Brazilian Palmtree "Babaçu"
- Potamotrygon orbignyiPotamotrygonPotamotrygon is a genus of freshwater stingrays native to the rivers of South America. As of July 2006, FishBase lists seventeen distinct species. The type species is P. hystrix....
(Castelnau, 1855)
External links
- Gallica Digital versions of some d'Orbigny works. Search at Recherche.
- Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle