Pierre Boitard (27 April 1787

Mâcon Mâcon (), historically Anglicization, anglicised as Mascon, is a city in east-central France. It is the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. Mâcon is home t ...

Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is B ...

– 25 August 1859) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

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, ...

. As well as describing and classifying the

Tasmanian devil The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii''; palawa kani: ''purinina'') is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. It was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago; it is now con ...

, he is notable for his fictional natural history ''Paris avant les hommes'' (''Paris Before Man''), published posthumously in 1861, which described a prehistoric ape-like human ancestor living in the region of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He also wrote ''Curiosités d'histoire naturelle et astronomie amusante'', ''Réalités fantastiques'', ''Voyages dans les planètes'', ''Manuel du naturaliste préparateur ou l’art d’empailler les animaux et de conserver les végétaux et les minéraux'', ''Manuel d'entomologie'' etc.

References

External links

* Stephen Trussel
"Paris Before Man"Gallica
Digitised texts *
Pierre Boitard
on

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (''SFE'') is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appea ...

1787 births 1859 deaths People from Mâcon 19th-century French botanists French geologists 19th-century French zoologists Writers of fiction set in prehistoric times {{France-botanist-stub