Louis Roule (; 20 December 1861 – 30 July 1942) 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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

. In 1881 he obtained a degree in

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

at Marseille, followed by his doctorate of sciences (1884) at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

with a thesis on

ascidians Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" ...

of coastal

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. From 1885 he worked as a lecturer at the faculty of sciences in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, where in 1892 he became a professor. During the previous year (1891), he earned a doctorate in medicine. In 1910 he succeeded

Léon Vaillant Léon Louis Vaillant (; 11 November 1834 – 24 November 1914) was a French zoologist. He is most famous for his work in the areas of herpetology, malacology, and ichthyology. In 1854 he graduated from the College d'Arras, followed by studie ...

(1834–1914) as chair of

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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

(reptiles and fish) at the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

, a position he would hold until 1937. During this time period he was also an instructor at the

Institut National Agronomique The Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (INA P-G) was a French university-level institution of grande école-type. It offered master's degree in agricultural- and life sciences. It was created in 1971 by merging the ''Institut national agr ...

(from 1925), and director of the laboratory of ichthyology at the

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

(EPHE).

Works

Roule's early research dealt largely with

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

. Later his focus turned to ichthyology, of which he had the opportunity to take inventory of large collections of marine specimens. He analyzed collections gathered from

Prince Albert I of Monaco Albert I (Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi; 13 November 1848 – 26 June 1922) was Prince of Monaco from 10 September 1889 until his death. He devoted much of his life to oceanography, exploration and science. Alongside his expeditions, Albert ...

, as well as specimens obtained from the Antarctic expeditions of

Jean-Baptiste Charcot Jean-Baptiste-Étienne-Auguste Charcot (15 July 1867 – 16 September 1936), born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French scientist, medical doctor and polar scientist. His father was the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Life Jean- ...

(1867–1936). Roule was the first scientist to describe '' Grimaldichthys profundissimus'', a fish species found at a depth of over six kilometers. He had an avid interest in the work of French naturalists of previous generations, publishing books on Buffon, Daubenton,

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 biolo ...

and Cuvier. Roule was also the author of well regarded works in the fields of

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos ...

and comparative anatomy.

Descriptions

*See :Taxa named by Louis Roule

Legacy

Two

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 ...

of reptiles are named in his honor: *'' Atractus roulei'' and *'' Isopachys roulei''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Roule", p. 227). *A fish genus of Slickheads, '' Rouleina'' is named after him. *A species of Goby '' Gobius roulei'', Roule's goby is named after him.

Selected writings

*''Recherches sur les Ascidies simple des cotes de Provence, Phallusiadées'', 1884 – Research on simple

ascidian Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" m ...

s of coastal

Phallusia ''Phallusia'' is a genus of tunicate A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (). It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including ...

. *''L'embryologie générale'', 1893 – General

. *''L' anatomie comparée des animaux basée sur l'embryologie'', 1898 – Comparative anatomy of animals based on embryology. *''Buffon et la description de la nature'', 1924 *''Daubenton et l'exploitation de la nature'', 1925 *''Les poissons et le monde vivant des eaux'', 1926 *''Lamarck et l'interprétation de la nature'', 1927 *''Les poissons apodes appartenant au sous-ordre des nemichthydiformes'', 1929 – Treatise on

Nemichthyidae Snipe eels are a family, Nemichthyidae, of eels that consists of nine species in three genera. They are pelagic fishes, found in every ocean, mostly at depths of but sometimes as deep as . Depending on the species, adults may reach in length, y ...

. *''La structure et la biologie des poissons'', 1930 – Structure and biology of fish. *''Fishes, their journeys and migrations'', 1933 (translated from the French by Conrad Elphinstone). *''Fishes and their ways of life'', 1935 (translated from the French by Conrad Elphinstone).

References

Open Library
(list of publications)
Kmae-journal Professor Louis Roule

External links