Auguste Henri André Duméril (30 November 1812 – 12 November 1870) was a French

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...

 zoologist. He was professor of Herpetology

Herpetology

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...

 and Ichthyology

Ichthyology

Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...

 at the 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...

 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...

 from 1857. His father André Marie Constant Duméril

André Marie Constant Duméril

André Marie Constant Duméril was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became professor of herpetology and ichthyology...

 was also a zoologist. In 1869 he was elected as a member of the Académie des sciences.

Duméril studied at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...

, and in 1844 became an associate professor of comparative physiology

Comparative physiology

Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover...

 at the university. In 1851 with his father he published Catalogue méthodique de la collection des Reptiles, although the younger Duméril was its sole author. With zoologist Marie Firmin Bocourt

Marie Firmin Bocourt

Marie Firmin Bocourt was a French zoologist and artist.In zoology, Bocourt collaborated with Auguste Duméril. In 1861, he was sent to Thailand , where he explored the fauna and brought back an important collection of specimens...

 (1819–1904), he collaborated on a study of reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s and amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

s called Etudes sur les reptiles et les batraciens, which is considered to be Duméril's best written work in the field of herpetology

Herpetology

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...

. This treatise was published with Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, which was the result of Bocourt's scientific expedition to Mexico and Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

 from 1864 to 1866. Auguste Duméril died in 1870 during the Siege of Paris

Siege of Paris

The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 – January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune....

, and Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale was continued by Bocourt, Léon Vaillant

Léon Vaillant

Léon Louis Vaillant was a French zoologist. He is most famous for his work in the areas of herpetology, malacology, and ichthyology...

 (1834-1914) and other scientists.

From 1865 to 1870 Duméril created a two-volume ichthyological study titled Histoire naturelle des poissons, ou Ichtyologie générale, which complemented the works of 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...

 (1769–1832) and Achille Valenciennes

Achille Valenciennes

Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology...

 (1794–1865), by describing species not covered by the two famous naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

s. Duméril also published an important treatise on the axolotl

Axolotl

The axolotl , Ambystoma mexicanum, is a neotenic salamander, closely related to the Tiger Salamander. Larvae of this species fail to undergo metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled. It is also called ajolote...

(Ambystoma mexicanum).