Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...

. He also carried out diverse systematic classifications, linking fossil and current species. He worked with Cuvier on the 22-volume "'' Histoire Naturelle des Poissons''" (Natural History of Fish) (1828–1848), carrying on alone after Cuvier died in 1832. In 1832, he succeeded Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (1777–1850) as chair of ''Histoire naturelle des mollusques, des vers et des zoophytes'' at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. Early in his career, he was given the task of classifying animals described by Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) during his travels in the American tropics (1799 to 1803), and a lasting friendship was established between the two men. He is the binomial authority for many species of fish, such as the

bartail jawfish The bartail jawfish (''Opistognathus cuvierii'') is a species of jawfish known only from reefs in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of southern Brazil. This species can reach a length of SL. The specific name honours the French naturalist ...

. Working in the scientific field of

herpetology Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

, Valenciennes described two new species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s. The

organ of Valenciennes The organ of Valenciennes, named after the French naturalist Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasi ...

, a part of the anatomy of a female of the genus '' Nautilus'', the purpose of which remains unknown, is named after him. A species of lizard, ''

Anolis valencienni ''Anolis valencienni'', the Jamaican twig anole or short-tail anole, is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Dactyloidae. The species is found in Jamaica."''Anolis valencienni''". The Reptile Database. http://reptile-database.repta ...

'', is named after him.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Valenciennes", p. 271).

References

1794 births 1865 deaths 19th-century French zoologists French zoologists French taxonomists French ichthyologists French herpetologists French parasitologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences National Museum of Natural History (France) people {{France-zoologist-stub

See also

References