Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (; 12 September 1777 – 1 May 1850) 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 anatomist.

Life

Blainville was born at Arques, near Dieppe. As a young man he went to Paris to study art, but ultimately devoted himself to natural history. He attracted the attention of

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 ...

, for whom he occasionally substituted as lecturer at the Collège de France and at the Athenaeum Club, London. In 1812 he was aided by Cuvier in acquiring the position of assistant professor of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

and

zoology 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 ...

in the Faculty of Sciences at Paris. Eventually, relations between the two men soured, a situation that ended in open enmity. In 1819, Blainville was elected a member of 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 ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. In 1825 he was admitted a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

; and in 1830 he was appointed to succeed

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...

in the chair of natural history at the museum. Two years later, on the death of Cuvier, he obtained the chair 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 ...

, of which he proved himself a worthy successor to his former teacher. In 1837, he was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. On May 1, 1850, he died from an attack of apoplexy in a railway carriage at the Embarcadère du Havre (current

Gare Saint-Lazare The Gare Saint-Lazare (English: St Lazarus station), officially Paris-Saint-Lazare, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It serves train services toward Normandy, northwest of Paris, along the Paris–Le Hav ...

) in Paris. He was the taxonomic authority of numerous zoological species, extinct and extant; including the eponymous

Blainville's beaked whale Blainville's beaked whale (''Mesoplodon densirostris''), or the dense-beaked whale, is believed to be the widest ranging mesoplodont whale. The French zoologist Henri de Blainville first described the species in 1817 from a small piece of jaw � ...

, ''Mesoplodon densirostris''. In the 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 ...

, he adopted Pierre André Latreille's proposal of separating

Amphibia Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

from Reptilia, and then (1816) developed a unique arrangement in regards to sub-groupings, using organs of generation as primary criteria. He described several 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. Blainville rejected evolution. He was a critic of Lamarck's evolutionary ideas but similar to Lamarck proposed a great chain of being. Earliest-mention-of-the-word-palaeontology-in-January-1822-by-Blainville

Earliest-mention-of-the-word-palaeontology-in-January-1822-by-Blainville

It was in 1822 that he coined the term

paleontology 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 ...

Legacy

Blainville is commemorated in the scientific names of several

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, such as the North American lizard ''

Phrynosoma blainvillii The San Diego horned lizard or Blainville's horned lizard (''Phrynosoma blainvillii'') is a species of phrynosomatid lizard native to southern and central California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico. Taxonomy Descri ...

'' or the fossil

actinopterygian Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or ho ...

fish '' Aeduella blainvillei'' from the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleoz ...

period of Europe.

Selected writings

*''Sur les ichthyolites, ou, Les poissons fossiles'' (1818) - On "ichthyolites", or fossil fish. *''De l'organisation des animaux, ou Principes d'anatomie comparée'' (1822) - On the organization of animals, or principles of

. *''Manuel de malacologie et de conchyliologie'' (1825-1827) - Manual of

malacology Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

and

conchology Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...

. *''Cours de physiologie générale et comparée'' (1829) - Course of general and comparative

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

. *''Manuel d'actinologie, ou de zoophytologie'' (1834) - Manual of

actinology Actinism () is the property of solar radiation that leads to the production of photochemical and photobiological effects. ''Actinism'' is derived from the Ancient Greek ἀκτίς, ἀκτῖνος ("ray, beam"). The word ''actinism'' is found ...

he study of the chemical effects of visible and ultraviolet light He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

or zoophytology. *''Ostéographie ou description iconographique comparée du squelette et du système dentaire des mammifères récents et fossiles'' (1839–64) - Osteography or comparative

iconographical Iconology is a method of interpretation in cultural history and the history of the visual arts used by Aby Warburg, Erwin Panofsky and their followers that uncovers the cultural, social, and historical background of themes and subjects in the visu ...

descriptions of the skeleton and teeth of living and fossil mammals.

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blainville, Henri Marie Ducrotay De 1777 births 1850 deaths 19th-century French zoologists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Conchologists Critics of Lamarckism Foreign Members of the Royal Society French anatomists French herpetologists French Roman Catholics French taxonomists French zoologists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences People from Seine-Maritime Teuthologists National Museum of Natural History (France) people

Life

Legacy

Selected writings

See also

References