Claude Jourdan (18 June 1803, in

Heyrieux Heyrieux () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in th ...

– 12 February 1873, in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

) 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

paleontologist 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 ...

. In

he was a professor of zoology to the Faculté des sciences, and a professor of

comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

. From 1832 to 1869 he was director of the Musée d'histoire naturelle - Guimet in Lyons.Jourdan, Claude (1803-après 1869)
Compléments historiographiques, Biographies As a zoologist, he conducted studies of living and extinct vertebrates, including

Proboscidea The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. From ...

(elephants and their ancestors). In 1840–48 he is credited with uncovering 2000 fossils at various excavation sites in France. As a

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

, he described ''

Acerodon ''Acerodon'' (meaning: Sharp-tooth) is a genus of bats in the family Pteropodidae containing five species, all native to forests in Southeast Asia, and all considered threatened. They are closely related to ''Pteropus''. Species Genus ''Acerod ...

'', a genus of Old World fruit bats, and ''Hemigalus'', a monospecific genus associated with the

banded palm civet The banded palm civet (''Hemigalus derbyanus''), also called banded civet, is a viverrid native to Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, peninsular Thailand and the Sunda Islands of Sipura, Sumatra and Borneo. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN R ...

, ''Hemigalus derbyanus''. He also classified the following mammal species: * Golden Atlantic tree-rat, ''Phyllomys blainvilii''. *

Western brush wallaby The western brush wallaby (''Notamacropus irma''), also known as the black-gloved wallaby, is a species of wallaby found in the southwestern coastal region of Western Australia. The wallaby's main threat is predation by the introduced red fox (' ...

, ''Macropus irma''. In 1839

Jules Bourcier Claude Marie Jules Bourcier (19 February 1797 – 9 March 1873) was a French naturalist and expert on hummingbirds.Prosopo ...

named the

rufous-shafted woodstar The rufous-shafted woodstar (''Chaetocercus jourdanii'') is a species of hummingbird in tribe Mellisugini of subfamily Trochilinae, the "bee hummingbirds". It is found in Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics ...

, ''Chaetocercus jourdanii'', after him. It is sometimes referred to as "Jourdan's woodstar".

Published works

* ''Mémoire sur un nouveau genre de Lémurien''. 1834. * ''Mémoires sur deux mammifères nouveaux de l'Inde'', 1837. * ''Mémoires sur un rongeur fossile des calcaires d'eau douce du centre de la France'', 1837. * ''Mémoire sur cinq mammifères nouveaux'', 1837. * ''Note géologique et paléontologique sur une partie de l'Ardèche''. * ''Descriptions de restes fossiles de deux grands mammifères des terrains sidérolitiques''. * ''Description d'ossements de l'Ormenalurus agilis'', 1866.Mémoires
by Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts, Lyon. Classe des sciences

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jourdan, Claude 1803 births 1873 deaths French zoologists French paleontologists People from Isère Academic staff of the University of Lyon