Philippe Édouard Poulletier de Verneuil (; 13 February 180529 May 1873) was a French paleontologist.Géologues et paléontologues : de la passion à la profession pdf
"Le cas d'Édouard de Verneuil (1805-1873) est tout autant révélateur de la façon dont peut naître la passion. Il se préparait à une carrière de magistrat lorsque.."

Life

He was born in Paris and educated in law, but being of independent means he was free to follow his own inclinations, and having attended lectures on

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

by Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont he was so attracted to the subject that he devoted himself assiduously to the study of science. He spent several years in travel through various parts of Europe, specially examining the geology of the

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, on which he published an essay (Mem. Soc. Geol. France, 1837). He next investigated the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

rocks and fossils of the Bas-Boulonnais; and in 1839 accompanied Sedgwick and Murchison in a study of the older Palaeozoic rocks of the Rhenish provinces and

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, the palaeontological results being communicated to the Geological Society of London in conjunction with the Vicomte d'Archiac. When Murchison commenced his geological examination of the Russian empire, he requested de Verneuil to accompany him, and the researches of the latter were incorporated in the second volume of ''The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains'' (1845). Subsequently, de Verneuil paid a visit to the United States to study the history of the palaeozoic rocks in that country, and the results were published in 1847 (Bull. Soc. Geol. France). In later years he made numerous expeditions into Spain, and his observations were embodied in ''Carte geologique de l'Espagne et du Portugal'' (1864), prepared in association with Edouard Collomb. In 1853 the Wollaston medal of the Geological Society of London was awarded to him, and in 1860 he was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. He died in Paris. De Verneuil was President of the Geological Society of France in 1840, 1853, and 1867. The deformed

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum (biology), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear e ...

fossil ''Cyrtospirifer verneuili'', known to quarrymen as the Delabole Butterfly, was found in the upper Devonian beds of North Cornwall. It was named after de Verneuil.

References

Attribution: *
Darwin Correspondence Online Database Record

External links

Online extract from '' Annales des Mines'', Paris, with biography by Gabriel Auguste Daubrée {{DEFAULTSORT:Verneuil, Edouard de 1805 births 1873 deaths French paleontologists Wollaston Medal winners Members of the French Academy of Sciences Foreign members of the Royal Society

Life

References

Further reading

External links