Olry Terquem (geologist)
Olry Terquem (born September 26, 1797 in Metz , † June 19, 1887 in Paris ) was a French geologist, paleontologist and pharmacist. He was a pioneer of paleontological stratigraphy in France and the study of the geology of Lorraine, making particular use of foraminifera .
Terquem came from a liberal Jewish family and, like his uncle, was part of a reform movement in Judaism (for example, he was against the exclusion of women from religious education and against separation at church services). He was the nephew of the mathematician of the same name Olry Terquem (1782–1862).
Terquem studied pharmacy in Paris until 1822 and was then a pharmacist in Metz. In addition, he taught applied chemistry from 1833 at the École Centrale in Metz. In 1852 he sold his pharmacy and devoted himself entirely to palaeontology and geology. In the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 he moved to Paris and classified the foraminifera collection of Alcide d'Orbigny . He was also the curator of paleontology and geology at the museum in Metz.
From 1845 to 1865 he undertook extensive field studies on geology (stratigraphy) and paleontology in Lorraine, Luxembourg and the Ardennes. He used, for example, the foraminifera discovered during the construction of the railway in the Moselle valley.
He studied the hettangium in particular and was involved in a controversy with applied geologists such as Jules Levallois about their stratigraphic classification. Terquem recognized correctly that they form the lowest level of the Jura (Lias) and do not belong to the Triassic. The Hettangium was named in 1864 by Eugène Renevier after the place Hettange-Grande on the Moselle, where the eponymous type locality is located in a quarry . Terquem also found that certain foraminifera have hardly changed since the lias , corresponding to the evolutionary phases later referred to by Stephen Jay Gould as stasis (see punctualism ).
From 1850 he was a member of the Société géologique de France.
Several types of fossils are named after him such as the Foraminifere Neoconorbina terquemi (Rzehak, 1888).
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Terquem, Olry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French geologist and paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 26, 1797 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Metz |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 19, 1887 |
| Place of death | Paris |