Xavier Mattei is 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

; his research was mainly in the field of

sperm Sperm is the male reproductive cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile sperm with a tail known as a flagellum, whi ...

ultrastructure Ultrastructure (or ultra-structure) is the architecture of cells and biomaterials that is visible at higher magnifications than found on a standard optical light microscope. This traditionally meant the resolution and magnification range of a co ...

, including

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

and a variety of invertebrates such as

flatworms The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

and

acanthocephalans Acanthocephala (Greek , ', thorn + , ', head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to p ...

. He is one of the most prolific authors in the field of

morphology and its use for the understanding of

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

, with more than 150 papers published.

Career

Xavier Mattei was a student at the

University of Dakar Cheikh Anta Diop University (french: Université Cheikh Anta Diop or UCAD), also known as the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, is a university in Dakar, Senegal. It is named after the Senegalese physicist, historian and anthropologist Cheikh ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

, then he became "''Assistant''", later "''Maître-Assistant''" and finally

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

in 1978. He was the Director of the Department of Animal Biology in this University from 1972 to 1986. In 1993, he left Senegal for joining the University of Corsica until his retirement in 2000. Xavier Mattei has established a Service of Electron Microscopy in the

which allowed many researchers to study cell

and produce a great number of scientific publications in the fields 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...

. This Service had three

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

s. He was the founder and the Head of this Service from 1970 to 1993.

Eponymous taxa

Two species have been named in his honour: the

Microsporidia Microsporidia are a group of spore-forming unicellular parasites. These spores contain an extrusion apparatus that has a coiled polar tube ending in an anchoring disc at the apical part of the spore. They were once considered protozoans or prot ...

''Unikaryon matteii'' Toguebaye & Marchand, 1984 and the

Acanthocephalan Acanthocephala (Greek , ', thorn + , ', head) is a phylum of parasitic worms known as acanthocephalans, thorny-headed worms, or spiny-headed worms, characterized by the presence of an eversible proboscis, armed with spines, which it uses to p ...

Mediorhynchus mattei ''Mediorhynchus mattei'' is a species of acanthocephalan, a parasitic worm, found in the digestive tract of a bird, the northern red-billed hornbill ''Tockus erythrorhynchus''. Male worms are 2-3 cm in length, females are 3-11 cm in length. It wa ...

'' Marchand & Vassiliadès, 1982. Both are parasitic species collected from animals in

Archaeology

As an amateur

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, Xavier Mattei collected many artifacts in the

ese village of La Somone, South of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

, over a period of more than 40 years. His findings were published in a book in 2015. * Xavier Mattei. La Somone. Sénégal. Traces d’histoire (2015) Escourbiac imprimeur à Graulhet, 81300 (87 pages) .

Cartoonist

After his retirement, Xavier Mattei published three books of cartoons about

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

. * Xavier Mattei. La Corse. Dessins en liberté surveillée. 2001. Édition Anima Corsa, Bastia (133 pages) . * Xavier Mattei. La Corse. Dessins libres. 2004. Édition Anima Corsa, Bastia (115 pages) . * Xavier Mattei. La Corse. Dessins identitaires. 2008. Édition Anima Corsa, Bastia (87 pages) .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattei, Xavier Living people 1939 births French zoologists Corsican diaspora French cartoonists