Olry Terquem (26 September 1797 in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

– 19 June 1887 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French pharmacist and

paleontologist 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 ...

. He was a nephew of mathematician

Olry Terquem Olry Terquem (16 June 1782 – 6 May 1862) was a French people, French mathematician. He is known for his works in geometry and for founding two scientific journals, one of which was the first journal about the history of mathematics. He was als ...

(1782–1862). Up until 1822 he studied pharmacy in Paris, and afterwards returned as a pharmacist to his hometown of Metz. From 1833 he taught classes in

industrial chemistry The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The ...

at the École Centrale in Metz. In 1852 he sold his pharmacy and devoted all his time to

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

and paleontology. Due to consequences of the Franco-Prussian War, he moved to Paris, where he established a paleontology laboratory. In Paris, he worked on the classification of

Alcide d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthrop ...

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...

collections.Olry Terquiem (1797-1886) Pionnier de la geologie Lorraine
/ref> From 1845 to 1865 he conducted extensive

stratigraphic Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostrati ...

and paleontological investigations of the Lorraine region,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

and the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

. In the mid-1850s, during the construction of railway lines in

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

, he discovered well preserved foraminifera fossils. He is also remembered for characterizing what would subsequently be known as the

Hettangian The Hettangian is the earliest age and lowest stage of the Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (My ...

strata, the earliest stage of the

Jurassic period The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

. In 1864

Eugène Renevier Eugène Renevier (26 March 18314 May 1906) Swiss geologist, was born at Lausanne, Switzerland, as a descendant of a noble family. After about three years of study at the polytechnical school of Stuttgart, Renevier in 1851 went to Geneva to study ...

proposed the term "Hettangian", named after the community of

Hettange-Grande Hettange-Grande (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Grouss-Hetténgen'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The town gives its name to the Hettangian age, the earliest age of the Jurassic period of the geologic ...

in Moselle (its

stratotype A stratotype or type section in geology is the physical location or outcrop of a particular reference exposure of a stratigraphic sequence or stratigraphic boundary. If the stratigraphic unit is layered, it is called a stratotype, whereas the stan ...

being a nearby quarry). He was a member of numerous learned societies, including the

Société géologique de France 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 sec ...

(from 1850). He also worked as a curator in the geology section of the Metz museum. Species with the epithet of ''terquemi'' commemorate his name, an example being the foraminiferan ''Neoconorbina terquemi'' ( Rzehak, 1888).

Selected works

* ''Paléontologie de l'étage inférieur de la formation Liasique de la province de Luxembourg (Grand duché) et de Hettange, département de la Moselle'', (1855) – Paleontology of the lower stage of the Liassic formation in Luxembourg and in Hettange, Moselle.
''Recherches sur les Foraminiferes''
1860. * ''Mémoire sur les Foraminifères du Lias du département de la Moselle'' ... Nos. 1-6, (1858–66) – On the Lias foraminifera of

. * ''Mémoire sur les foraminifères du système oolithique : ètude du fullers-earthe de la Moselle'' ... Nos. 1-3, (1867–70) – On the foraminifera of the Oolitic system. * ''Le lias inférieur de l'est de la France comprenant la Meurthe, la Moselle, le grand-duché de Luxembourg, la Belgique et la Meuse'' (with

Édouard Piette Édouard Louis Stanislas Piette (11 March 1827, Aubigny-les-Pothées – 5 June 1906, Rumigny) was a French archaeologist and prehistorian. Biography A magistrate by vocation, at around the age of 28 he developed an interest in geology. He stu ...

; 1868) – The Lower Lias of eastern France, including Meurthe,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a t ...

. * ''Les foraminifères de l'éocène des environs de Paris'', (1882) – The foraminifera of the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

near Paris.HathiTrust Digital Library
(published works)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terquem, Olry 1797 births 1887 deaths Scientists from Metz French geologists French paleontologists French pharmacists