Charles Jean Julien Depéret (25 June 1854 – 18 May 1929)[1] was a French geologist and paleontologist. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences,[1] the Société géologique de France[2] and dean of the Science faculty of Lyon.[3]
Charles Depéret | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 June 1854 |
| Died | 18 May 1929 (aged 74) |
| Nationality | French |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology Paleontology |
| Institutions | Aix-Marseille University University of Lyon |
Charles Depéret was born in Perpignan. He started his career as a military doctor from 1877 to 1888. Initially posted in Algeria, he was later active in Sathonay.[3] In 1888, he became lecturer at Aix-Marseille University,[3] and in 1889 he became professor of geology at the University of Lyon.[2] He died in Lyon.[4]
In 1892 he introduced the Burdigalian Stage (Lower Miocene) based on stratigraphic units found near Bordeaux and in the Rhône Valley.[5] He was an advocate of the controversial prehistoric artifacts findings of Glozel.[6]
Along with Edward Drinker Cope, who appears not to have written on this topic,[7] his name is associated with the so-called "Cope-Depéret rule", a law which asserts that in population lineages, body size tends to increase over evolutionary time.[8] In his book Les transformations du monde animal, he denied that any instance of reduction in body size in evolution had been documented. For instance, he argued (chapter XIX of the book) that the small extinct elephants of Mediterranean islands (like "Elephas melitensis", now called Palaeoloxodon melitensis) were not dwarfed elephants but rather, descendants of ancient elephants that had always retained a small body size, a hypothesis that has been refuted by subsequent research.[9][10] Some authors have thus suggested to call this Depéret's rule.[11]
Taxa described by Depéret
edit- Amphirhagatherium (1908).[12]
- Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (with Justin Savornin, 1925).[13]
- Gazella borbonica (1884).[14]
- Megalosaurus crenatissimus, now referred to as Majungasaurus crenatissimus, (1896).[15]
- Protragocerus, (1887).[16]
- Pseudosinopa, synonym Cynohyaenodon, (1917).[17]
Selected works
editIn 1909 his book Les transformations du monde animal (1907) was translated into English and published with the title "The transformations of the animal world".[18] The following list contains a few of his other noted writings:
- Description géologique du bassin tertiaire du Roussillon, 1885 – Description of the tertiary geological basin in Roussillon.
- Les animaux pliocènes du Roussillon, 1890 – Pliocene animals of Roussillon.
- La faune de mammifères miocènes de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) et de quelques autres localités du bassin du Rhone : documents nouveaux et revision générale, 1892 – On Miocene vertebrates of Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) and some other localities of the Rhône basin.
- Note sur les dinosauriens sauropodes & théropodes du Crétacé supérieur de Madagascar, 1896 – Note on the sauropod and theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar.
- Monographie des pectinidés néogènes de l'Europe et des régions voisines, 1902 – Monograph on Neogene pectinids of Europe and neighboring regions.
- Monographie de la faune de mammifères fossiles du Ludien inférieur d'Euzet-les-Bains (Gard), 1917 – Monograph on fossil mammal fauna of the lower Ludian at Euzet-les-Bains, (Gard).[19]
Legasy
editDeperetella, an extinct perissodactyl, is named after Depéret.[20]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Past members of the French Academy of Sciences". Archived from the original on 2007-08-15. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
- ^ a b Obituary at Annales des Mines Archived 2012-03-06 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
- ^ a b c Obituary at Les Études rhodaniennes, Year 1929, Vol. 5, Issue 5-2, pp. 342-343 (in French)
- ^ "Deperet, Charles." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com
- ^ A Geologic Time Scale 2004 by Felix M. Gradstein, James G. Ogg, Alan G. Smith
- ^ Webpage about Charles Depéret at Glozel Museum website
- ^ Polly, Paul D. (2 October 1998). "Cope's Rule". Science. 282 (5386): 47–47. doi:10.1126/science.282.5386.47f.
- ^ Laurin, M (2010). "Assessment of the relative merits of a few methods to detect evolutionary trends". Syst Biol. 59 (6): 689–704. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syq059. PMID 20937759.
- ^ Palombo, M. R. (1 January 2003). "Elephas? Mammuthus? Loxodonta? The question of the true ancestor of the smallest dwarfed elephant of Sicily". Deinsea. 9 (1): 273–292. ISSN 2468-8983.
- ^ Sen, Sevket (2017). "A review of the Pleistocene dwarfed elephants from the Aegean islands, and their paleogeographic context". Fossil Imprint. 73 (1–2): 76–92.
- ^ Bokma, Folmer; Godinot, Marc; Maridet, Olivier; Ladevèze, Sandrine; Costeur, Loïc; Solé, Floréal; Gheerbrant, Emmanuel; Peigné, Stéphane; Jacques, Florian; Laurin, Michel (27 October 2015). "Testing for Depéret's Rule (Body Size Increase) in Mammals using Combined Extinct and Extant Data". Systematic Biology. 65 (1): 98–108. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syv075. ISSN 1063-5157.
- ^ Amphirhagatherium Depéret, 1908 Archived 2018-01-17 at the Wayback Machine GBIF
- ^ Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Depéret and Savornin 1925 Paleobiology Database
- ^ Petronio, Carmelo; Bellucci, Luca; Martiinetto, Edoardo; Pandolfi, Luca; Salari, Leonardo (2011). "Biochronology and palaeoenvironmental changes from the Middle Pliocene to the Late Pleistocene in Central Italy" (PDF). Geodiversitas. 33 (3): 485–517. doi:10.5252/g2011n3a4. hdl:2318/128607. S2CID 131503285.
- ^ Majungasaurus crenatissimus Depéret 1896 Paleobiology Database
- ^ Protragocerus Deperet 1887 Paleobiology Database
- ^ Cynohyaenodon Filhol 1873 Paleobiology Database
- ^ HathiTrust Digital Library (published works)
- ^ IDREF.fr lengthy bibliography
- ^ Matthew, W. D.; Granger, W. (1925). "New mammals from the Shara Murun Eocene of Mongolia" (PDF). American Museum Novitates (196). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-02.