Danièle Guinot (born 1933) is a French biologist, an emeritus professor at the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

in France, known for her research on

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

Biography

Guinot was born in eastern France and educated at the University of Montpellier and the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, finishing her studies in 1955. She then joined the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle as a research assistant; she remained there for the rest of her career. She earned a doctorate from Pierre and Marie Curie University in 1977.

Research

Guinot carried out several studies of crabs from exotic environments, including deep-sea crabs from the Indo-West Pacific bathyal zone and from hydrothermal vents, and crabs living in caves in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Her doctoral thesis proposed a new classification system for certain crabs based on the position of their reproductive organs. In later studies, she became particularly interested in crab behavior, including stridulation, carrying, and camouflage. Over the course of her career she described 10 new families of crabs, 47 new genera, and 163 new species. Guinot has also studied the history of crabs and of their interactions with humans, including crab fishing techniques, medicinal uses of crabs, and the study of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

fossil crabs.

Awards and honors

In 2008, Guinot was the recipient of the Excellence in Research Award of the Crustacean Society.. More than 30 genera and species have been named in honor of Guinot. In 2010, a tribute volume of crustacean research papers was dedicated to her, and the Japanese soldier crab species '' Mictyris guinotae'' (newly distinguished from the previously identified species '' Mictyris brevidactylus'') was named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guinot, Daniele 1933 births Living people French women biologists French carcinologists University of Montpellier alumni University of Paris alumni National Museum of Natural History (France) people