Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

and author. He was the son of Nicolas Desmarest and father of Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest. Desmarest was a disciple of

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

and Alexandre Brongniart, and in 1815, he succeeded

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freed ...

to the professorship of zoology at the '. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1819 and to the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1820. Desmarest published ' (1805), ' (1825), ' (1820) and ' (1816–30, with André Marie Constant Duméril). The brown algae ''

Desmarestia ''Desmarestia'' is a genus of brown algae found worldwide. It is also called acid weed, acidweed, ', sea sorrel, (), ', mermaid's hair, landlady's wig, or '. However, 'sea sorrel' can also specifically refer to '' Desmarestia viridis''. Mem ...

'' is named in honour of Desmarest, as well as the family ( Desmarestiaceae) — and in turn, the order ( Desmarestiales) — of which the genus is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

References

French zoologists French taxonomists 1784 births 1838 deaths French carcinologists French mammalogists French ornithologists 18th-century French zoologists 19th-century French zoologists {{France-zoologist-stub