Charles Depéret

Charles Jean Julien Depéret (25 June 1854 – 18 May 1929)^[1] was a French geologist and paleontologist. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences,^[1] the Société géologique de France^[2] and dean of the Science faculty of Lyon.^[3]

Charles Depéret was born in Perpignan. He started his career as a military doctor from 1877 to 1888. Initially posted in Algeria, he was later active in Sathonay.^[3] In 1888, he became lecturer at Aix-Marseille University,^[3] and in 1889 he became professor of geology at the University of Lyon.^[2] He died in Lyon.^[4]

In 1892 he introduced the Burdigalian Stage (Lower Miocene) based on stratigraphic units found near Bordeaux and in the Rhône Valley.^[5] He was an advocate of the controversial prehistoric artifacts findings of Glozel.^[6] Along with Edward Drinker Cope, his name is associated with the so-called "Cope-Depéret rule", a law which asserts that in population lineages, body size tends to increase over evolutionary time.^[7]

Taxa described by Depéret[edit]

• Amphirhagatherium (1908).^[8]
• Carcharodontosaurus saharicus (with Justin Savornin, 1925).^[9]
• Gazella borbonica (1884).^[10]
• Megalosaurus crenatissimus, now referred to as Majungasaurus crenatissimus, (1896).^[11]
• Protragocerus, (1887).^[12]
• Pseudosinopa, synonym Cynohyaenodon, (1917).^[13]

Selected works[edit]

In 1909 his book Les transformations du monde animal (1907) was translated into English and published with the title "The transformations of the animal world".^[14] The following list contains a few of his other noted writings:

• Description géologique du bassin tertiaire du Roussillon, 1885 – Description of the tertiary geological basin in Roussillon.
• Les animaux pliocènes du Roussillon, 1890 – Pliocene animals of Roussillon.
• La faune de mammifères miocènes de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) et de quelques autres localités du bassin du Rhone : documents nouveaux et revision générale, 1892 – On Miocene vertebrates of Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) and some other localities of the Rhône basin.
• Note sur les dinosauriens sauropodes & théropodes du Crétacé supérieur de Madagascar, 1896 – Note on the sauropod and theropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Madagascar.
• Monographie des pectinidés néogènes de l'Europe et des régions voisines, 1902 – Monograph on Neogene pectinids of Europe and neighboring regions.
• Monographie de la faune de mammifères fossiles du Ludien inférieur d'Euzet-les-Bains (Gard), 1917 – Monograph on fossil mammal fauna of the lower Ludian at Euzet-les-Bains, (Gard).^[15]

Legasy[edit]

Deperetella, an extinct perissodactyl, is named after Depéret.^[16]

See also[edit]

• Burdigalian
• Cope-Depéret rule
• Majungasaurus

References[edit]