Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de Grateloup (31 December 1782 – 25 August 1862) was a French physician and naturalist. He completed his medical studies at

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

and remained attached to the countryside of the southwest of France. In company with his childhood friend Jean-Marie Léon Dufour (1780–1865) and Dufour's friend

Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent Jean-Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist, officer and politician. He was born on 6 July 1778 in Agen ( Lot-et-Garonne) and died on 22 December 1846 in Paris. Biologist and geographer, he was particularly i ...

(1778–1846) he expressed his enthusiasm for

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

specializing in the study of

cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...

s, the

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s and other plants that reproduce through

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s. Then the shells found in the region attracted his attention, in particular those from the Adour.Grateloup, "Tableau des coquilles Fossiles qu'on rencontre dans des terrains calcaires tertiaires (faluns) des environs de Dax" in ''Actes de la Société linnéenne de Bordeaux'', 183;: ''Mémoire de géo-zoologie sur les oursins fossiles (échinides) qui se rencontrent dans les terrains caleaires des environs de Dax'', 1836;
Conchyliologie fossile des terrains tertiaires du bassin de l'Adour(environs de Dax)''
Bordeaux, 1840. He practiced medicine in the military hospitals at

Dax Dax or DAX may refer to: Business and organizations * DAX, stock market index of the top 40 German companies ** DAX 100, an expanded index of 100 stocks, superseded by the HDAX ** TecDAX, stock index of the top 30 German technology firms * Dax ...

, where from his graduation from Montpellier in 1807 he worked in the company of Jean Thore (1762–1823). Under the Bourbon Restoration he experienced setbacks in his career. After his marriage in 1822 he moved to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

. As a corresponding member of the ''

Société linnéenne de Paris Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...

'', the world's first "

Linnaean society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

", he was made director of the

natural history museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

of Dax, which was founded on the collections of Jacques-François de Borda d'Oro (1718–1804). In addition to his own works he edited articles for the ''Annales générales de sciences physiques'' by Bory de Saint-Vincent, Auguste Drapiez (1778–1856) et

Jean-Baptiste Van Mons Jean-Baptiste Van Mons (11 November 1765 Brussels — 6 September 1842 Leuven) was a Belgian physicist, chemist, botanist, horticulturist and pomologist, and professor of chemistry and agronomy at Louvain (1817-1830). Van Mons carried out the f ...

(1765–1842). Hi
''Catalogue des mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles: vivants et fossiles, de la France continentale e insulaire''
1855, catalogued all the

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s found in France, living and fossilized.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grateloup, Jean-Pierre Sylvestre de 1782 births 1862 deaths French naturalists