Louis Lartet (1840 – 1899) was a French

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

. He discovered the original

Cro-Magnon Cro-Magnons or European early modern humans (EEMH) were the first early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') to settle in Europe, migrating from western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They in ...

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

s. Louis Lartet was born in Castelnau-Magnoac, in

Seissan Seissan (; ) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. Geography Population See also *Communes of the Gers department The following is a list of the 458 communes of the Gers department of France. The communes coo ...

in the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of

Gers Gers (; or , ) is a departments of France, department in the regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southwestern France. Gers is bordered by the departments of Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques to ...

. His father,

Édouard Lartet Édouard Lartet (15 April 180128 January 1871) was a French geologist and paleontologist, and a pioneer of Paleolithic archaeology. He is also known for coining the prehistoric taxon '' Amphicyon'', making it one of the earliest-described fossil ...

was a prominent geologist and prehistorian who played a key role in the 1860s and 1870s in finding evidence that humans had lived during the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

period and Louis continued his father's researches into human prehistory. He became a member of the

Société géologique de France The Société géologique de France (SGF) is a French learned society founded on 17 March 1830. As of 2006, it counts 1,200 members. History At its creation, its statutes indicate is to "compete for the advancement of Earth Sciences and Planets, ...

(Geological Society of France) in 1863 and joined the expedition organized by the Duke of Luynes to explore Palestine. This resulted in his publication of Exploration géologique de la mer Morte (1876-7), which formed his doctoral thesis. In 1868, Lartet was asked to conduct excavations in a rock shelter near the French village of Les Eyzies after workmen stumbled upon extinct animal bones, flint tools, and human skulls. Lartet discovered the partial skeletons of four prehistoric adults and one infant along with perforated shells used as ornaments, an object made from ivory, and worked reindeer antler. These Cro-magnon humans were soon identified as a new prehistoric human race distinct from the

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

man fossils discovered in Germany in 1856. Lartet began teaching geology at the University of Toulouse in 1873 and in 1879 he became a tenured professor of geology at the university. He became a member of the Société archéologique du midi de la France in 1879, the Société d'agriculture in 1880; the Académie des sciences in 1882 and the Société d'histoire naturelle in 1882.

Works

“Mémoire sur une sepulture des anciens troglodytes du Périgord.” ''Annales des sciences naturelles: Zoologie et paléontologie'' ser 5, 10 (1868): 133-45. “Une sépulture des troglodytes du Périgord,” ''Bulletins de la Société d’Anthropologie de Paris'' 3 (1868): 335-349. with Chaplain Duparc, “Sur une sépulture des anciens Troglodytes des Pyrénées superposée à un foyer contenant des débris humains associés à des dents sculptées de Lion et d'Ours.” ''Matériaux pour l’histoire primitive et naturelle de l’homme'' 2 ser., 9 (1874): 101-67. ''Paléontologie''. Paris: Masson, 1873. ''Sur la dentition des proboscidiens fossiles (Dinotherium, Mastodontes et Éléphants) et sur la distribution géographique et stratigraphique de leurs débris en Europe.'' Paris : Martinet, 1859.

References

Matthew R. Goodrum, "Louis Lartet." Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum (2019) available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xZS9dqZCHjMgxg_GUigFLzAfWcumJHUG/view