Albert-Félix de Lapparent (1905–1975) was a
French palaeontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
. He was also a
Sulpician
The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (french: Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice), abbreviated PSS also known as the Sulpicians is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris ...
priest. He undertook a number of
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
-hunting explorations in the
Sahara desert
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. He contributed greatly to our knowledge of
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s and other prehistoric creatures. In 1986,
José Bonaparte
José Fernando Bonaparte (14 June 1928 – 18 February 2020) was an Argentine paleontologist who discovered a plethora of South American dinosaurs and mentored a new generation of Argentine paleontologists
. One of the best-known Argentine paleo ...
named the dinosaur ''
Lapparentosaurus
''Lapparentosaurus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic. Its fossils were found in Madagascar (Isalo III Formation). The type species is ''L. madagascariensis''.
Discovery and naming
In 1895 Richard Lydekker named a new s ...
'' in his honour.
Dinosaurs named by Lapparent were ''
Inosaurus tedreftensis
''Inosaurus'' (meaning " In Tedreft lizard") is the name given to a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous-aged "Continental intercalaire" and Early Cretaceous (Albian)-aged Echkar Formation of Niger and possibly from the ...
'' (Lapparent, 1960) and ''
Lusitanosaurus liassicus'' (Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957).
New species of known genera are also credited to him. In alphabetical order, they are: ''
Apatosaurus alenquerensis'' (Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957), ''
Astrodon pusillus'' (Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957), ''
Brachiosaurus atalaiensis '' (Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957), ''
Brachiosaurus nougaredi'' (Lapparent, 1960), ''
Cetiosaurus mogrebiensis
''Cetiosaurus'' () meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek '/ meaning 'sea monster' (later, 'whale') and '/ meaning 'lizard', is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period, living about 168 million years ago in what ...
'' (Lapparent, 1955), ''
Elaphrosaurus gautieri'' (Lapparent, 1960), ''
Elaphrosaurus iguidiensis'' (Lapparent, 1960), ''
Megalosaurus pombali'' (Lapparent and Zbyszewski, 1957) and ''
Rebbachisaurus tamesnensis'' (Lapparent, 1960).
The giant crocodile ''
Sarcosuchus
''Sarcosuchus'' (; ) is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian, 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and ...
'' was also discovered by him, in 1964.
References
Enchanted Learning website*A. F. d.e. Lapparent and G. Zbyszewski. 1957. Les dinosauriens du Portugal
he dinosaurs of Portugal Mémoires des Services Géologiques du Portugal, nouvelle série 2:1-63
*A. F. de. Lapparent, 1960. Les Dinosauriens du "Continental intercalaire" du Saharal central
he dinosaurs of the "Continental Intercalaire" of the central Sahara Mémoires de la Société géologique de France, nouvelle série 39(88A):1-57
1905 births
1975 deaths
French paleontologists
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