Jean Albert Gaudry
Jean Albert Gaudry | |
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palaeontologist | |
Awards | Wollaston Medal (1884) |
Jean Albert Gaudry (16 September 1827 – 27 November 1908
Career
At the age of twenty-five he made explorations in
In 1853, while still in Cyprus, he was appointed assistant to
In 1900 he presided over the meetings of the eighth International Congress of Geology then held in Paris. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1900.[1]
He is distinguished for his researches on fossil mammalia, and for the support which his studies have rendered to the theory of evolution.
Professor Huxley, comparing our present knowledge of the mammals of the Tertiary era with that of 1859, states that the discoveries of Gaudry, Marsh, and Filhol, are "as if zoologists were to become acquainted with a country hitherto unknown, as rich in novel forms of life as Brazil or South America once were to Europeans."[10]
Evolution
Gaudry was one of the first scientists to invent a phylogenetic tree for fossil forms in 1866.[11]
Gaudry was an advocate of theistic evolution. In his book Essai de paléontologie philosophique (1896) he considered evolution to be a divine plan guided by God.[12]
Because of his spiritual beliefs, he rejected the idea of natural selection and struggle for existence.[3][17] Paleontologist Éric Buffetaut has written that "Gaudry's strong religious feelings made it difficult for him to accept Darwin's mechanistic vision of an evolution based on chance and natural selection. Evolution was acceptable to him because it revealed a unity in the organic world which was the mark of divine works."[3]
Publications
- Animaux fossiles et géologie de l'Attique (2 vols., 1862–1867)
- Considérations Générales sur les Animaux Fossiles de Pikermi (1866)
- Cours de paléontologie (1873)
- Animaux fossiles du Mont Lebéron (1873)
- Les Enchaînements du monde animal dans les temps géologiques (Mammifères tertiaires, 1878 ; Fossiles primaires, 1883; Fossiles secondaires, 1890)
- Essai de paléontologie philosophique (1896)
Brief memoir with portrait in Geol. Mag. (1903), p. 49.[1]
Source: Woodward 1911
Quotes
If we recognise that organised beings have little by little been transformed, we shall regard them as plastic substances which an artist has been pleased to knead during the immense course of ages, lengthening here, broadening or diminishing there, as the sculptor, with a piece of clay, produces a thousand forms, following the impulse of his genius. But we shall not doubt that the artist was the Creator himself, for each transformation has borne a reflection of his infinite beauty.[3]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Woodward 1911.
- ^ Glangeaud, Philippe (1910). Albert Gaudry and the Evolution of the Animal Kingdom, from the Smithsonian Report for 1909, pages 417–429. Washington Government Printing Office.
- ^ a b c d Buffetaut, Éric. (1987). A Short History of Vertebrate Palaeontology. Croom Helm. p. 117
- ISBN 0-226-11292-6
- ^ a b Woodward 1908, pp. 163–164.
- ^ Cilleuls 1969, p. 137.
- ^ Burollet 1995, pp. 111–122.
- ^ Albert Gaudry (1886). "Sur un nouveau genre de Reptile trouvé dans le Permien d'Autun". Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France. 3ème série. 14: 430–433.
- .
- ^ Hutchinson, Henry Neville (1893). Extinct Monsters. London: Chapman & Hall. p. xi.
- ISBN 0-226-11292-6"The French paleontologist Albert Gaudry was one of the first to build genealogical trees to represent the phylogenetic history of fossil forms, taking their stratigraphic position into account. As early as 1866, he illustrated his Animaux fossiles et géologie de l'Attique (Fossil animals and geology of Attica) with pictures representing the phylogenies of several families of land vertebrates."
- ^ Palacio-Pérez, Eduardo. (2013). Science and Belief in the Construction of the Concept of Paleolithic Religion. Complutum 24 (2): 51–61.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0298-7
- ^ Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1870). Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection: A Series of Essays. New York: Macmillan and Co. pp. 299–300
- ISBN 978-0-521-76889-4
- ISBN 0-226-73103-0
- ISBN 978-0-8264-5833-9"Albert Gaudry (1827–1908), a creator of evolutionary palaeontology, was both a transformist and an admirer of Darwin, but his spiritualist beliefs and his vision of a cosmic order led him to reject the theory of the struggle for existence, which he considered to be a mere hypothesis."
References
- Burollet, Pierre F. (21 June 1995), "L'exploration de la Tunisie avant la première guerre mondiale", Travaux du Comitée français d'Histoire de la Géologie (in French), 9 (3), Comité Français d'Histoire de la Géologie (COFRHIGEO) (séance du 21 juin 1995), retrieved 29 July 2017
- Cilleuls, Jean des (1969), A propos des phosphates de Tunisie et de leur découverte par Philippe THOMAS, vétérinaire militaire (1843–1910) (PDF) (in French), retrieved 1 September 2017
- doi:10.1038/079163a0
- public domain: Woodward, Horace Bolingbroke (1911). "Gaudry, Jean Albert". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 531. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Philippe Glangeaud. (1910). Albert Gaudry and the Evolution of the Animal Kingdom. Washington.