![Leonard Dupont](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Leonard_Dupont.jpg)
Léonard Puech Dupont (10 January 1796 – 7 February 1828) was a French naturalist, explorer, collector and trader of natural history specimens.
![Dupont_memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Dupont_memorial.jpg)
Dupont was born in
Bayeux, Normandy to wigmaker Jean-Antoine Puech dit Dupont and Marie-Françoise Badin. An older sibling died at the age of three and his younger brother
Richard Henry or Henri (known also as Dupont jeune) also became a naturalist. Their mother was a conchologist with a large collection of shells. The family moved to Paris and Leonard began to collect specimens and was a regular at the
Jardin des Plantes, interacting with other naturalists. and working for sometime as a specimen preparator. In 1818 he was hired by
Joseph Ritchie
Doctor Joseph Ritchie (c. 1788 – 20 November 1819) was an English surgeon, explorer and naturalist. His primary interest lay in the natural sciences, though he is best known for playing a minor role in the British exploration of Africa.
Lif ...
for an expedition into Africa along the Niger river. Ritchie and Dupont were also joined by George Francis Lyon (1795–1832) and John Belford. Dupont resigned from the group at Tripoli on 7 February 1819. The group had to disguise themselves as Muslims and Leonard took the name of Mourad but refused to be circumcised and fell afoul of Ritchie. This left Leonard stranded without money and he had to be repatriated by the French consul. Returning to France with a large set of specimens which were sold to naturalists resulted in several new species being described including Dupont's lark ''
Chersophilus duponti''.
Dupont published ''Traite ́de taxidermie, ou l’art de conserver et d’empailler les animaux'' (1823) which was reviewed by
Vieillot
Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist.
Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collect ...
. He died in 1828 and an unlocated grave monument was described by Caplin.
File:Dupont plate 1.jpg, Preparation of specimens
File:Dupont plate 4.jpg, Mounted specimens
References
External links
Traité de taxidermie, ou L'art de conserver et d'empailler les animaux , par M. Dupont aîné(1827, second edition)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupont, Leonard Puech
1796 births
1828 deaths
French naturalists
19th-century naturalists
19th-century French scientists
People from Bayeux