Jean Albert Gaudry

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bust of Jean Albert Gaudry from the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle , Paris

Jean Albert Gaudry , called Albert Gaudry, (born September 16, 1827 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye , † November 27, 1908 in Paris ) was a French geologist and paleontologist who made a contribution through his research in the field of fossil mammals to the theory of evolution .

Live and act

Gaudry attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris . When he was 16 years old, his sister married the naturalist Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny , which gave him important contacts. In 1852 he received his doctorate in paleontology from Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle . In 1853 he was sent on a research trip to Cyprus and Greece by the Natural History Museum and the Ministry of Agriculture , where he stayed until 1855 and again excavated in Pikermi in 1860. He examined the rich site of fossil vertebrates from Pikermi (which had been discovered by Andreas Wagner in 1839 ) and brought to light a remarkable mammal fauna. It was of Miocene age and mediated with its shapes between the groups of European, Asian and African mammal faunas. He also published a geological description of the island of Cyprus ( Mém. Soc. Géol. De France , 1862).

In Cyprus he was offered an assistant position under A. d'Orbigny , the first holder of the chair of paleontology at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. In 1872 he succeeded d'Orbigny in this influential post. In 1882 he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences ; and in 1884 he received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London . In 1900 he was chairman of the eighth International Geological Congress, which took place in Paris. In the same year he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1895 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . From 1895 he was a foreign member ( Foreign Member ) of the Royal Society . In 1902 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Although he was a proponent of an evolution in the sense of a development from fossil to modern species and welcomed Darwin's Origin of species , he did not see natural selection behind evolution, but the rule of a creator, a view that he held onto until his death.

Mount Gaudry , a 2315  m high mountain on the Adelaide Island in Antarctica , is named in his honor .

Works

  • Géologie de l'île de Chypre . In: Mém. Soc. Géol. de France , 1862
  • Animaux fossiles et géologie de l'Attique . 2 volumes. F. Savy, Paris 1862, 1867
  • Cours de paleontologie . 1873
  • Animaux fossiles du Mont Léberon (Vaucluse) - Étude sur les Vertébrés . Savy, Paris 1873
  • Les Enchainements du monde animal dans les termes géologiques ( Mammifères Tertiaires , 1878; Fossiles primaires , 1883; Fossiles secondaires , 1890)
  • Essai de paleontologie philosophique . Masson, Paris 1896

literature

  • Geological Magazine , 1903, p. 49; short obituary with portrait.
  • Gaudry, Jean Albert . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 11 : Franciscans - Gibson . London 1910, p. 531 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Jean Albert Gaudry. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed on March 26, 2015 .
  2. ^ Member entry by Jean Albert Gaudry (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  3. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Gaudry, Jean Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaudry, Albert Jean
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French geologist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Germain-en-Laye
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 1908
Place of death Paris