Marie Jules César Lelorgne de Savigny (April 5, 1777 - October 5, 1851) 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.

Savigny was born at Provins

Provins

Provins is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.Provins, a town of medieval fairs, became a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 2001.-Administration:...

. In 1798 he travelled to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 with the Emperor Napoleon as part of the French scientific expedition to that country, and contributed to the publication of the findings of the expedition in 1809 (Description de l'Égypte

Description de l'Egypte

Description de l'Égypte is the title of several books.* Description de l'Égypte - Description de l'Égypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française Pub; First Edition , L'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1809-1813; l'Imprimerie...

published more fully in 1822). He wrote about the fauna in the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and discovered that mouth parts of arthropods were transformed extremities.

Education and travel to Egypt

At age 16, Savigny traveled from his home of Provins

Provins

Provins is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.Provins, a town of medieval fairs, became a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 2001.-Administration:...

, in the department of Seine et Marne, to Paris to finish his studies. Being very interested in botany, he worked 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...

 with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck , often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist...

 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...

. Cuvier suggested to Napoleon that the 21-year-old Savigny should follow him as zoologist to Egypt. Savingy became responsible for studying invertebrates, while Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire may refer to:* Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , French naturalist* Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , French zoologist who coined the term ethology, son of Étienne Saint-Hilaire...

 took care of the vertebrates. After returning to Paris, in 1802, Savigny started to work on the large collections from Egypt, producing a number of manuscripts and plates

Lithography

Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...

.

Later years

By 1817, Savingy's eyesight had deteriorated, and he had to stop working for a number of years. After returning to work in 1822, his eyesight continued to worsen, and by 1824 he became more-or-less blind, with terrible "optical hallucinations."

Some species named for or by Savigny

• Tethyum savignyi
• Trididemnum savignii (Herdman, 1886)
• Sepia savignyi (H. de Blainville, 1827)
• Mitra savignyi (Payraudeau, 1826)
• Anachis savignyi (Moazzo, 1939)
• Savignyella (Levinsen, 1909)
• Ophiactis savignyi (J. Müller & Troschel, 1842; Ljungman, 1867)
• Siderastrea savignyana (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1850)
• Microcosmus savignyi (Monniot, 1962)
• Dynamenella savignii (H. Milne Edwards, 1840)
• Leptochelia savignyi (Krøyer, 1842)
• Savignyella Levinsen, 1900
• Planaxis savignyi (Deshayes, 1844)
• Vexillum savignyi (Payraudeau, 1826)
• Diadema savignyi (Michelin, 1845)
• Thais savignyi (G. P. Deshayes, 1844)
• Goniopora savignyi (Dana, 1846)
• Loimia savignyi (M'Intosh, 1885)
• Ciona savignyi