Louis Antoine Marie Joseph Dollo (

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

, 7 December 1857 –

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 19 April 1931) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

palaeontologist 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 ...

, known for his work on dinosaurs. He also posited that evolution is not reversible, known as

Dollo's law Dollo's law of irreversibility (also known as Dollo's law and Dollo's principle), proposed in 1893 by Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo states that, "an organism never returns exactly to a former state, even if it finds itself placed in condition ...

. Together with the Austrian

Othenio Abel Othenio Lothar Franz Anton Louis Abel (June 20, 1875 – July 4, 1946) was an Austrian paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. Together with Louis Dollo, he was the founder of "paleobiology" and studied the life and environment of fossilized or ...

, Dollo established the principles of

paleobiology Paleobiology (or palaeobiology) is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. Paleobiology is not to be confused with geobiology, which focuses more on the interactio ...

Early life

Louis Dollo was born in

Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Cala ...

, a scion of an old

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...

family. He studied at the

École centrale de Lille Located in the campus of Science and Technology (Cité Scientifique) of the University of Lille in Villeneuve-d'Ascq ( European Metropolis of Lille - Hauts-de-France); École Centrale de Lille is a renowned graduate engineering school, with ro ...

, with geologist

Jules Gosselet Jules-Auguste Gosselet (19 April 1832 – 20 March 1916) was a French geologist born in Cambrai, France.Alfred Giard Alfred Mathieu Giard (8 August 1846 – 8 August 1908) was a French zoologist born in Valenciennes. Biography In 1867 he began his studies of natural sciences at the École Normale Supérieure, followed by work as ''préparateur de zoologie'' a ...

, both of whom influenced the young Dollo. In 1877, he graduated with a degree in engineering. After his graduation, he worked in the mining industry for five years, but simultaneously developed a passion for paleontology. In 1879, he moved to

''Iguanodon'' spp.

For three years, starting in 1878, he supervised the excavation of the famous, multiple ''

Iguanodon ''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning 'iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the late Jurassic Period to the early Cretaceous Period of Asia, Eu ...

'' find at

Bernissart Bernissart (; pcd, Bernissåt) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, Bernissart had a total population of 11,458. The total area is 43.42 ...

, Belgium. He devoted himself to their study as a scientific passion, initially concurrently with his engineering career. In 1882 he became an assistant naturalist at the

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences The Museum of Natural Sciences of Belgium (french: Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique, nl, Museum voor Natuurwetenschappen van België) is a museum dedicated to natural history, located in Brussels, Belgium. The museum is a part of t ...

. Dollo was given membership in the Société des sciences de Lille and the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. From 1882 to 1885, while he was head of the vertebrate fossil section of the Royal Institute, Dollo worked on reconstructing the skeletons of the iguanodons, as it was necessary to display them on their hind legs. The first one was assembled in the interior of an unused church that Dollo was using as a workshop. Twelve of those skeletons have been the principal attraction of the Museum of Natural Sciences at the Royal Institute. Dollo collaborated with his former professor

Alfred Giard Alfred Mathieu Giard (8 August 1846 – 8 August 1908) was a French zoologist born in Valenciennes. Biography In 1867 he began his studies of natural sciences at the École Normale Supérieure, followed by work as ''préparateur de zoologie'' a ...

and the

Université Lille Nord de France The Community of Universities and Institutions (COMUE) Lille Nord de France (formerly Université Lille Nord de France) was a French Groups of Universities and Institutions ( COMUE) spread over multiple campuses and centered in Lille (North - Hauts ...

Dollo's law

Around 1890, he formulated a hypothesis on the irreversible nature of evolution, known later as "

". According to his hypothesis, a structure or organ lost during the course of evolution would not reappear in that organism. This hypothesis was largely accepted until Michael F. Whiting's 2003 discovery that certain insects that had lost their wings regained them millions of years later. However, it was redeemed on the molecular level in 2009 as a result of a study on

glucocorticoid receptor The glucocorticoid receptor (GR, or GCR) also known as NR3C1 (nuclear receptor subfamily 3, group C, member 1) is the receptor to which cortisol and other glucocorticoids bind. The GR is expressed in almost every cell in the body and regulates ...

s.Pagel, Mark (2009). "Human language as a culturally transmitted replicator"in: ''Nature Reviews Genetics'' (Macmillan Publishers Limited.) 10 (6): 405–15. doi:10.1038/nrg2560 . .

Paleobiology

Dollo continued his work with fossils, in addition to studies of dinosaurs and their ecology. He was among the first to see fossil animals as part of an

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

. Because of that, he was instrumental in the development of paleobiology, and he kept up an extensive correspondence with

, another famous early paleobiologist. He taught paleontology at the

Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions * Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970 *Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...

, beginning in 1909, and in 1912 received the

Murchison Medal The Murchison Medal is an academic award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. First awarded in 1873, it is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research and ...

. Recently, the stochastic Dollo model is being used to analyze matrix of cognates statistically. In linguistics, this model permits a newly coined cognate to arise only once on a tree language.

Works

Animal classifications

* Hypsilophodontidae, 1882 * ''

Boulengerina ''Boulengerina'' is a genus or subgenus of elapid venomous snakes known commonly as water cobras, so named because of their semiaquatic nature. The genus has two recognised species, which are native to central and southern Africa. Taxonomy Som ...

'', 1886 *

Cryptodira The Cryptodira ('' el, hidden neck'') are a suborder of Testudines that includes most living tortoises and turtles. Cryptodira differ from Pleurodira (side-necked turtles) in that they lower their necks and pull the heads straight back into the ...

: Eurysternidae, 1886 *

Iguanodontia Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', ''Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-bi ...

: ''

bernissartensis'', 1888 *

: ''Iguanodon mantelli'', 1888 *

Prognathodon ''Prognathodon'' is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like ''Mosasaurus'' and ''Clidastes''. ''Prognathodon'' has been recovered from depos ...

, 1889 *

Bathydraconidae The Bathydraconidae, or the Antarctic dragonfishes, are a family of marine ray-finned fishes, notothenioids belonging to the Perciform suborder Notothenioidei. The family comprises four genera. These fishes are endemic to deep waters off Antarct ...

''Gerlachea australis'', 1900 *

''Racovitzia glacialis'', 1900 *

, 1906 * Macrourinae: ''Cynomacrurus'', 1909 *

Elapidae Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids ; grc, ἔλλοψ ''éllops'' "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus Emydoceph ...

Dyrosauridae Dyrosauridae is a family of extinct neosuchian crocodyliforms that lived from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to the Eocene. Dyrosaurid fossils are globally distributed, having been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South Amer ...

Literature

* Louis Dollo (1882), "Première note sur les dinosauriens de Bernissart". ''Bulletin du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique'' 1: 161–180. * Louis Dollo (1883), "Note sur les restes de dinosauriens rencontrés dans le Crétacé Supérieur de la Belgique". ''Bulletin du Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle de Belgique'' 2: 205–221. * Louis Dollo (1891), "La vie au sein des mers : la faune marine et les grandes profondeurs, les grandes explorations sous marines, les conditions d'existence dans les abysses, la faune abyssale'', in: ''Bibliothèque scientifique contemporaine''. * Louis Dollo (1892), "Sur le "Lepidosteus suessoniensis", in: ''Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique''. * Louis Dollo (1892), "Sur la morphologie des côtes", in: ''Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique''. * Louis Dollo (1892), "Sur la morphologie de la colonne vertébrale", in: ''Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique''. * Louis Dollo (1899), "Première note sur les mosasauriens de Maestricht", ''Bulletine. Soc. belge Geol. Pal. Hydr''., Vol.4. * Louis Dollo (1899),

, "Les ancêtres des Marsupiaux étaient-ils arboricoles ?", Station Zoologique de Wimereux. * Louis Dollo (1903), "Les Ancêtres des mosasauriens", in: ''Bulletin scientifique de la France et de la Belgique''. * Louis Dollo (1904), ''Expédition antarctique belge (1897–1899) ; résultats du voyage du S. Y. Belgica en 1897 – 1898 – 1899 sous le commandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery; rapports scientifiques : Zoologie : Poissons''. Antwerp: J.-E. Buschmann. * Louis Dollo (1905), "Les Dinosauriens adaptés à la vie quadrupède secondaire." ''Bulletine. Soc. belge Geol. Pal. Hydr''., 19: 441–448. * Louis Dollo (1910), ''La Paléontologie éthologique''. ;Translations by Louis Dollo *

John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the p ...

, ''Les Microbes'' (1882) * Rudolf Hörnes, ''Manuel de paléontologie'' (1886) *

Wilhelm Krause Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Krause (12 July 1833 – 4 February 1910) was a German anatomist born in Hanover. He was the son of anatomist Karl Friedrich Theodor Krause (1797-1868). Krause studied at Göttingen, where he became member of Burschen ...

, ''Manuel d'anatomie humaine'' (1887–89) ;Re-published works by Louis Dollo * Stephen Jay Gould (1970), "Dollo on Dollo's Law: Irreversibility and the Status of Evolutionary Laws", ''Journal of the History of Biology'' / 3, No.2:189–212. * Stephen Jay Gould, ed. (1980), ''Louis Dollo's papers on paleontology and evolution'', Original Anthology, New York, Arno Press, 1980 * David B. Weishampel and Nadine M. White, eds. (2003) ''The Dinosaur Papers'', Washington: Smithsonian Institution Books. * Edward Drinker Cope (1886), "Schlosser on Creodonta and Phenacodus ; Dollo on extinct tortoises", ''Amer. Naturalist''. 20. 965–968.

Biographies of Dollo

* Othenio Abel, “Louis Dollo. 7 Dezember 1857–19 April 1931. Ein Rückblick und Abschied”, in: ''Palaeobiologica'', 4. 321–344 (1931). * Victor Émile van Straelen, ''Louis Dollo : Notice biographique avec liste bibliographique''. Bruxelles (1933). * N. N. Yakovlev, “Memoirs about Louis Dollo,” Ezhegodn. Vsesoyuzn. Paleontol. O-va 10, 4–9 (1935). * P. Brien, “Notice sur Louis Dollo,” Ann. Acad. R. Belg. Not. Biograph. 1, 69–138 (1951). * L. Sh. Davitashvili, “Louis Dollo,” in Questions of the History of Sciences and Engineering, Vol. 3. pp. 103–108 (Moscow, 1957) n Russian * N. N. Yakovlev, Memoirs of a Geologist Paleontologist (Nauka, Moscow, 1965) n Russian * L. K. Gabunia, “Dollo Louis Antone Marie Joseph,” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York), Vol. 4, pp. 147–148 (1971) * L. K. Gabunia, Louis Dollo (1857–1931) (Nauka, Moscow, 1974) n Russian * Yu. Ya. Soloviev, Louis Dollo, Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal, 2008, No. 6, pp. 103–107 n Russian * Yu. Ya. Soloviev, 150th Anniversary of the birth of Louis Dollo (1857–1931), Paleontological Journal Volume 42, Issue 6, pp 681–684, October 2008.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dollo, Louis Antoine Marie Joseph Belgian paleontologists École centrale de Lille alumni Lille University of Science and Technology alumni 1857 births 1931 deaths Paleobiologists Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) faculty Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala