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Les Planches inédites de Foraminifères d’Alcide d'Orbigny

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Marie-Thérèse Vénec-Peyré

Foreword

Texte intégral

“I have never had in my work any aim other than the progress of science to which I have dedicated my existence”
(Alcide d’Orbigny 1855)

1Introduced to Natural History at an early age by his father Charles-Marie, Alcide Dessalines d’Orbigny (1802-1857) developed a life interest in the study of shelled microscopic animals that he named “Foraminifères”. At the age of 23, he presented to the Academy of Sciences his first memoir on these microorganisms which were still considered at the time to be microscopic cephalopods. This work, entitled Tableau méthodique de la classe des Céphalopodes, was associated with 73 plates of drawings. The text was published in 1826 in Les Annales de Sciences Naturelles, but unfortunately without the plates. Although they have remained unpublished, these Planches inédites are often cited in scientific literature, and have for a long time interested foraminifera specialists.

2Establishing, with this first comprehensive work, the foundations of Micropaleontology, Alcide d’Orbigny certainly had little idea of the important implications the new science would have, not only in numerous domains of academic research, but also in the economic sector. Indeed, foraminifera have effectively contributed to the extension of our understanding about the Earth’s history through the various testimonies they provide concerning the age and chronology of deposits, as well as paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Since the 1920s, they have greatly contributed to oil prospection and to major construction, projects such as the tunnel beneath the English Channel, and, since the 1960s, have also been used extensively in paleoceanographic and paleoclimatologic research.

3This first work of the young naturalist showed promise of a prestigious and fruitful scientific career. Indeed, the abilities he revealed in his first work were to be maintained throughout his career. With boundless enthusiasm, great tenacity and a passion for extensive projects, d’Orbigny left behind an immense scientific and cultural inheritance which, thanks to his interest in the Sciences of Earth and Life and in the Human Sciences, widely exceeds the domain of Micropaleontology. His collections are housed in the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris where the Chair of Paleontology was created for him in 1853.

4The bicentenial of his birth, all through the year 2002 in France and South America, paid homage to this great scientist whose work is exceptional by its extent and the importance of its implications as well as by the diversity of the topics in which d’Orbigny was involved (Taquet 2002; Taquet & Vénec-Peyré 2002; Vénec-Peyré 2002a, b, 2004). The project of publishing the Planches inédites was initiated in the framework of these manifestations. They are produced by the Publications scientifiques du Muséum with the support of INSU (CNRS) and of TOTAL Company.

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