Beyond frontiers and time: the scientific and cultural heritage of Alcide d’Orbigny (1802–1857)

Alcide Dessalines d’Orbigny was born on 6 September 1802 in Couëron (near Nantes), France. In his early youth, he developed a life interest in the study of a group of microscopic animals that he named ‘Foraminifera’. In his first scientific work, devoted to this group, he established the basis of a new science, micropaleontology. All his life, he worked on foraminifera, but his concern in natural sciences widely exceeded the domain of micropaleontology. Impressed by his first work on foraminifera, published at the age of 23, the scientists of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) chose him as the naturalist explorer for an expedition to South America. Alcide d’Orbigny explored Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru from 1826 to 1833. He was a great humanist and applied the view of an ethnologist and historian to the communities with which he shared his daily life in South America. A precursor in biogeography and ecology, he contributed greatly to the advancement of knowledge of the animal and vegetal kingdoms by describing several thousand living species in the nine volumes of his ‘Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale’ (1835–1847). Back in France, he turned his research towards paleontology and stratigraphy. He undertook the immense task of describing all species of fossil invertebrates found in France in the eight volumes of ‘La Paléontologie française’ (1840–1860). He arranged 18 000 species in stratigraphic order in the three volumes of ‘Prodrome de Paléontologie stratigraphique’ (1850–1852), and published three volumes entitled ‘Cours élémentaire de paléontologie et de géologie stratigraphiques’ (1849–1852). These important works led him to create the first geological and stratigraphical scale. Many of the 27 stages established are still used in the standard chronostratigraphic scale. The Chair of Paleontology of the MNHN in Paris was created for him in 1853. He died on 30 June 1857 at the age of 55, in Pierrefitte (France), leaving behind him a huge scientific and cultural heritage. Alcide d’Orbigny bequeathed to posterity a collection of more than 100 000 vegetable and animal specimens. This exceptionally rich heritage, deposited in the MNHN, is an international reference collection, and it is actively consulted by specialists from around the world. The application of his work extends to various fields of academic research (such as earth history, paleoceanography and paleoclimatology), to economics and practical applications in stratigraphy and micropaleontology that greatly contribute to oil and other resource exploration as well as major earth construction. The bicentennial of the birth of Alcide d’Orbigny was celebrated in France during the year 2002 under the patronage of the highest authorities of the state, along with scientific and cultural institutions. A traveling exhibition presented the different facets of his life’s work and international congresses were held in the three places dearest to Alcide d’Orbigny: Santa Cruz (Bolivia), La Rochelle (France) and Paris (France). This year (2003) marks the 150th anniversary of his appointment to the Chair of Paleontology of the MNHN.