Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers

Félix Joseph Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (May 15, 1821 - July 21, 1901) was a French biologist, anatomist and zoologist who was born in Montpezat in the department of Lot-et-Garonne. He studied medicine in Paris, and worked at Necker Hospital under Armand Trousseau (1801-1867). Later, with Jules Haime (1824-1856), he travelled to the Balearic Islands to study marine life. In 1854 he returned to Paris as an assistant to Henri Milne-Edwards (1800-1885), and soon afterwards became a professor of zoology in Lille.

In 1865 he succeeded Achille Valenciennes (1794-1865) as chair of Natural History of Mollusks, Worms and Zoophytes at the "Muséum national d'histoire naturelle", and in 1868 became a professor at the University of Paris. In 1871 he was elected to "Académie des sciences" in the department of anatomy and zoology.

Lacaze-Duthiers is remembered for his study of the anatomy and developmental history of mussels, coral, snails, brachiopods and other lower marine animals. In 1858 he discovered three mollusks in the Mediterranean that produced purple-blue dyes. One of the species, named "murex trunculus" was the source of the distinctive purple-blue dye used by the ancient Phoenicians and Canaanites. He also performed pioneer exploration of marine life of coastal Algeria.

He founded two laboratories devoted to marine biology; the biological station at Roscoff in 1876, and the Arago laboratory at Banyuls-sur-Mer in 1882. With his student Pruvot Georges (1852-1924), he founded the journal "Archives de zoologie expérimentale et générale" (Archives of Experimental and General Zoology). One of his better known written works was an 1863 treatise on the natural history of coral called "Histoire naturelle du corail".

References

* "This article is based on a translation of an article from the French and German Wikipedia."