La collection d’Invertébrés fossiles d’Alcide d’Orbigny et la salle d’Orbigny

Fossil invertebrates collected or received by Alcide d’Orbigny, all his life long, have been brought together in a renowned collection that is very rich in terms of both species and specimens. The collection has resulted from a huge palaeontological work. Study of faunas from numerous French sites led Alcide d’Orbigny to do biostratigraphical comparisons and to erect geological stages, the definitions of which rest on their stratotypes. His wide knowledge of European fossil faunas was strengthened by a more global palaeobiogeographical view derived from his travel in South America. The d’Orbigny collection is housed in the ‘Muséum’ of Paris and is often visited by experts.     

Alcide d’Orbigny entre Cuvier et Lamarck

In the History of Science, Alcide d’Orbigny has the distinctive characteristic to be placed, between Cuvier and Lamarck, who were the two masters of Natural Science for most of the 19th century. It is in this historical context that Alcide d’Orbigny lived. Of Cuvier, he remembered ideas on disasters and species fixedness without using the same evidence, for he was not a vertebrist. Of Lamarck, he rejected the ideas on life continuity and species transformation while using the research field opened by the Zoology and Invertebrate Palaeontology founder. Alcide d’Orbigny’s originality was to use Lamarck’s Invertebrate fossils as evidence of the ideas that Cuvier had based on Vertebrate fossils.     

Les travaux micropaléontologiques d’Alcide d’Orbigny

D’Orbigny has created the order of Foraminifera for minute animals classed, at this time, amongst Cephalopoda, and proposed the first classification of this order in 1826, laying the foundations of micropalaeontology. All along his life, he described, figured or clarified diagnosis of about 1500 recent and fossil species. His collections, stored in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, represent an inestimable patrimony and are still actively consulted. Several micropalaeontologists had contributed to their valorisation and recognised the validity of most of his species. Nowadays, one hundred and two are considered as type species of genera.     

Alcide d’Orbigny et la Bolivie (1825–1857)

The evaluation of d’Orbigny’s contribution to Bolivian studies implies putting it in relation with the economic and political context prevailing before, during, and after his travel in this country, between 1830 and 1833. This paper deals with the following topics: the crisis of the silver mines in Potosi, the achievements of the governments of Santa Cruz (1829–1839) and Ballivián (1841–1847), and the various projects intending to open Bolivian lowlands to navigation and colonisation. Finally, some important documents show that d’Orbigny remains concerned with Bolivia many years after he returned to France.     

Alcide dˈOrbigny et les Rudistes

In the Paléontologie française (1850), Alcide dˈOrbigny described 78 species of Rudists found in geological beds in France.     

Le « créationnisme » d’Alcide d’Orbigny et les fondements de la théorie biostratigraphique

D’Orbigny was more interested in the discontinuities of life history than in the origin of species. He looked for reference points to correlate geological strata and to reconstruct their history. This allowed him to formalise the concept of stratigraphic stage and to propose the first geological time scale. Therefore, one of the results was that he was unjustly considered as one of the leaders of the creationism school, because he used the ambiguous term ‘creation’ to designate the renewal of fauna after catastrophic events, but without providing a definition and with a meaning that was probably different from those of his successors.     

Cretaceous Bivalves and Alcide d’Orbigny

The main publications on Cretaceous Bivalves of Alcide d’Orbigny are the Paléontologie française – Terrains crétacés. III. Lamellibranches (1843–1847) and the Prodrome de stratigraphie universelle, vol. II (1850). The importance and influence of these publications for today’s taxonomic palaeontology are discussed. It is shown that the Paléontologie française continues to be one of the major 19th-century papers but that the Prodrome is only rarely referred to.     

Alcide d’Orbigny,un précurseur dans l’étude de la faune du Danien du bassin de Paris

One of the major contributions of Alcide d’Orbigny to palaeontology is his work on the Danian of the Paris Basin. The Danian material includes well-preserved external imprints of Invertebrates. By making casting of these imprints, Alcide d’Orbigny inaugurated an original technique, which enabled him to describe more than 40 species. The question of the age of the Danian localities has long been debated since that time. It was settled once and for all in the seventies by micropalaeontologists.     

Forces,failles et opportunités de la recherche française en écologie trophique

The French National Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE) aims at fostering pluridisciplinarity in Environmental Science and, for that purpose, funds ex muros research groups (GDR) on thematic topics. Trophic ecology has been identified as a scientific field in ecology that would greatly benefit from such networking activity, as being profoundly scattered. This has motivated the seeding of a GDR, entitled “GRET”. The contours of the GRET's action, and its ability to fill these gaps within trophic ecology at the French national scale, will depend on the causes of this relative scattering. This study relied on a nationally broadcasted poll aiming at characterizing the field of trophic ecology in France. Amongst all the unique individuals that fulfilled the poll, over 300 belonged at least partly to the field of trophic ecology. The sample included all French public research institutes and career stages. Three main disruptions within the community of scientist in trophic ecology were identified. The first highlighted the lack of interfaces between microbial and trophic ecology. The second evidenced that research questions were strongly linked to single study fields or ecosystem type. Last, research activities are still quite restricted to the ecosystem boundaries. All three rupture points limit the conceptual and applied progression in the field of trophic ecology. Here we show that most of the disruptions within French Trophic Ecology are culturally inherited, rather than motivated by scientific reasons or justified by socio-economic stakes. Comparison with the current literature confirms that these disruptions are not necessarily typical of the French research landscape, but instead echo the general weaknesses of the international research in ecology. Thereby, communication and networking actions within and toward the community of trophic ecologists, as planned within the GRET's objectives, should contribute to fill these gaps, by reintegrating microbes within trophic concepts and setting the seeds for trans- and meta-ecosystemic research opportunities. Once the community of trophic ecologists is aware of the scientific benefit in pushing its boundaries forwards, turning words and good intentions into concrete research projects will depend on the opportunities to obtain research funding.     

Les groupements végétaux du bassin de la sambre française

Sans résuméReçu par la rédaction le 5.1.1960     

Les groupements végétaux du Bassin de la Sambre française

Sans résumé