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ORBIGNY, ALCIDE DESSALINES

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 164 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORBIGNY, ALCIDE DESSALINES D' (1802–1857), See also:French palaeontologist, was See also:born at Couerzon, See also:Loire Inferieure, on the 6th of See also:September 1802. He was educated at La Rochelle, where he became interested in the study of natural See also:history, and in particular of See also:zoology and palaeontology. His first See also:appointment was that of travelling naturalist for the Museum of Natural History at See also:Paris. In the course of his duties he proceeded in 1826 to See also:South See also:America, and gathered much See also:information on the natural history and See also:ethnology, the results being embodied in his See also:great See also:work Voyage dons l'Amirique Meridionale (1839-1842). Meanwhile he had decided to devote his See also:time and energies to palaeontology, and he dealt in course of time with various invertebrata from See also:foraminifera to crinoids and See also:mollusca. In 1840 he commenced the publication of Paleontologic Frangaise, ou description See also:des fossiles de la See also:France, a monumental work, accompanied by figures of the See also:species. Eight volumes were published by him dealing with See also:Jurassic and Cretaceous invertebrata, and since his See also:death many later volumes have been issued. (See notes by C. D. Sherborn, " On the See also:Dates of the Paleontologie Francaise of D'Orbigny," Geol. Mag., 1899, p. 223.) Among his other See also:works were Cows elementaire de paleontologie et de geologic stratigraphiques (3 vols., 1849–1852), and Prodrome de paleontologie stritigraphique (3 vols., 1850-1852).

D'Orbigny introduced (1852) a methodical See also:

system of nomenclature for See also:geological formations based partly on the See also:English terms—thus Bathonian for the Great or See also:Bath Oolite, See also:Bajocian from Bajocea or See also:Bayeux in See also:Calvados for the Inferior Oolite. Many of these names have been widely adopted, but some are of too See also:local application to be generally used. In 1853 he was appointed See also:professor of palaeontology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, but died four years later, on the 3oth of See also:June 1857, at Pierresitte, near St See also:Denis.

End of Article: ORBIGNY, ALCIDE DESSALINES

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