Gervais, Paul

▪ French paleontologist and zoologist

born Sept. 26, 1816, Paris

died Feb. 10, 1879, Paris

      paleontologist and zoologist who succeeded Georges Cuvier and Henri de Blainville as principal French contributor to vertebrate paleontology.

      Gervais was a student of Blainville, who was Cuvier's successor as professor of comparative anatomy at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Gervais eventually followed his teacher in the coveted chair (1868). At Montpellier, he served as professor of zoology and comparative anatomy (1845–65) and became dean of the faculty of sciences (1856). During this period, he published a supplement to the paleontological works of Cuvier and Blainville, Zoologie et paléontologie françaises (1848–52). Both this study and Zoologie et paléontologie générales (1867–75) were his principal works.

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