Alfred Louis Pierre Germain (8 January 1878 – 18 October 1942) was a French

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

born in

Niort Niort (; Poitevin: ''Niàu''; oc, Niòrt; la, Novioritum) is a commune in the Deux-Sèvres department, western France. It is the prefecture of Deux-Sèvres. The population of Niort is 58,707 (2017) and more than 177,000 people live in the u ...

, department

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

. He studied in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the prov ...

and

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 ...

, obtaining his doctorate of sciences in 1907. Later he worked under

Louis Joubin Louis Marie Adolphe Olivier Édouard Joubin (27 February 1861 in Épinal – 24 April 1935 in Paris) was a professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. He published works on nemerteans, chaetognatha, cephalopods, and other ...

in the laboratory of

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

, worms and

zoophytes A zoophyte (animal-plant) is an organism thought to be intermediate between animals and plants, or an animal with plant-like attributes or appearance. In the 19th century they were reclassified as Radiata which included various taxa, a term supers ...

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 ...

in Paris. From 1936 to 1942 he was director of the museum. Recently (2010), a new genus of

freshwater mussel Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves. The majority of species of bivalve molluscs ...

s from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

called ''Germainaia'' was introduced into science.

Written works

* ''Étude sur les mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles vivants des environs d'Angers et du département de Maine-et-Loire'', Bulletin of the Society of Natural Sciences of Western France, 1903 – Study of terrestrial and fluviatile mollusks living in the vicinity of Angers and the department of

Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indre-e ...

. * ''Les mollusques terrestres & fluviatiles de l'Afrique centrale française'', 1907 - Terrestrial and fluviatile mollusks of French central Africa. * ''Gastéropodes pulmonés et prosobranches terrestres et fluviatiles dans la Mollusques de la France et des régions voisines'', 1913 -

Pulmonata Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includ ...

gastropods The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. Ther ...

, terrestrial & fluviatile

Prosobranchia Prosobranchia was a large taxonomic subclass of sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. This taxon of gastropods dates back to the 1920s. It has however been proven to be polyphyletic (consisting of more than one lineage of descent). Gen ...

Mollusca Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

of France and neighboring regions. * ''Chetognathes provenant des campagnes des yachts Hirondelle et Princesse-Alice (1885-1910)'', 1916 -

Chaetognatha The Chaetognatha or chaetognaths (meaning ''bristle-jaws'') are a phylum of predatory marine worms that are a major component of plankton worldwide. Commonly known as arrow worms, about 20% of the known Chaetognatha species are benthic, and can ...

from campaigns of the yachts Hirondelle and Princesse-Alice (1885-1910). * ''La Biogéographie et les musées régionaux'',

Annales de Géographie The ''Annales de Géographie'' is a French journal devoted to geography, first published in 1891. From the start the journal was an influential and respected academic journal. History The ''Annales de Géographie'' was founded in 1891 by Paul Vid ...

, 1918 -

Biogeography Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

and regional museums. * ''Contributions àla faune malacologique de Madagascar. Les pélécypodes fluviatiles de Madagascar''. Bulletin du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 24:34–42. 1918 - Contributions to the malacological fauna of

, fluviatile

pelecypod Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of marine and freshwater molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hinged parts. As a group, biva ...

s. * ''Mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles'', 1920 - Fluvial and terrestrial molluscs. * ''Mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles de Syrie dans Voyage zoologique d'Henri Gadeau de Kerville en Syrie'', 1926 - Terrestrial and fluviatile mollusks of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

from the zoological voyage of

Henri Gadeau de Kerville Henri Gadeau de Kerville (17 December 1858 in Rouen – 26 July 1940 in Bagnères-de-Luchon) was a French zoologist, entomologist, botanist and archeologist best known for his photographs of these subjects and especially for his work "''Les Insecte ...

. * ''La vie des animaux à la surface des continents'', 1924 - Animal life on the surface of continents. * ''L’Atlantide'', Revue scientifique, August 9 and 23, 1924 * ''La faune des lacs, des étangs et des marais'', 1925 - Fauna of lakes, ponds and marshes.
Biodiversity Heritage Library of Australia

References

* ''Parts of this article is based on a translation of an equivalent article at the

French Wikipedia The French Wikipedia (french: Wikipédia en français) is the French-language edition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. This edition was started on 23 March 2001, two months after the official creation of Wikipedia. It has article ...

''.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Germain, Louis French malacologists People from Niort 1878 births 1942 deaths National Museum of Natural History (France) people