Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

and author. He was the son of

Nicolas Desmarest Nicolas Desmarest (; 16 September 1725 – 20 September 1815) was a French geologist and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'', in particular, the multi-volume ''Géographie-ph ...

and the father of

Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest (1816–1889) was a French zoologist and entomologist. He was the son of Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French Zoology, zoologist and author. He ...

Career

Desmarest was a disciple of

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

and

Alexandre Brongniart Alexandre Brongniart (5 February 17707 October 1847) was a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist, who collaborated with Georges Cuvier on a study of the geology of the region around Paris. Observing fossil conten ...

, and in 1815, he succeeded

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoology, zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained hi ...

to the professorship of zoology at the '. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1819 and to the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1820.

Publications

Desmarest published ' (1805), ' (1825), ' (1820), and ' (1816–30, with

André Marie Constant Duméril André Marie Constant Duméril (1 January 1774 – 14 August 1860) was a French zoologist. He was professor of anatomy at the National Museum of Natural History (France), Muséum national d'histoire naturelle from 1801 to 1812, when he became pr ...

). His ''Mammalogie'' was significant as it contained a comprehensive list of all mammals known at the time, including living forms and extinct forms known only from fossils. Desmarest was one of the first scientists to routinely apply both genus and species names to animals. Prior to his time, it was common practice to give only a genus name to a new animal.

Legacy

The

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

Desmarest's hutia Desmarest's hutia or the Cuban hutia (''Capromys pilorides'') is a stout, furry, rat-like mammal found only on Cuba and nearby islands. Growing to about , it normally lives in pairs and feeds on leaves, fruit, bark and sometimes small animals. It ...

, honors Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest, who described the species in 1822 under the synonym ''fourniere''. The

brown algae Brown algae (: alga) are a large group of multicellular algae comprising the class (biology), class Phaeophyceae. They include many seaweeds located in colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Brown algae are the major seaweeds of the temperate ...

Desmarestia ''Desmarestia'' is a genus of brown algae found worldwide. It is also called acid weed, acid kelp, acidweed, ', sea sorrel, (), ', mermaid's hair, landlady's wig, or '. However, 'sea sorrel' can also specifically refer to ''Desmarestia virid ...

'' is named in honour of Desmarest, as well as the family (

Desmarestiaceae Desmarestiaceae is a family of brown algae, one of two families in the order Desmarestiales.Guiry, M. D. & G. M. Guiry. 2013Desmarestiales.AlgaeBase. National University of Ireland, Galway. Accessed 04 June 2013. The family gets its name from t ...

) — and in turn, the order (

Desmarestiales Desmarestiales is an order in the brown algae (Phaeophyceae). Members of this order have terete or ligulate (flat) pinnately branched thalli attached by discoid holdfasts. They have a sporophytic thallus usually aggregated to form a pseud ...

) — of which the genus is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

References

French zoologists French taxonomists 1784 births 1838 deaths French carcinologists French mammalogists French ornithologists 18th-century French zoologists 19th-century French zoologists International members of the American Philosophical Society {{France-zoologist-stub ```