Le rôle précurseur de Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse, naturaliste toulousain du Siècle des lumières, dans la paléontologie des rudistes

Abstract

Philippe Picot de Lapeyrouse (1744–1818), naturalist from Toulouse in the Age of Enlightenment, pioneer of the rudists palaeontology. The rudists, singular colonial Bivalves fixed on the sea bottom, populated warm waters of the Mesozoic peri-tethyan platforms. The biologic significance of these fossils, known from the Renaissance, is essentially due to Picot de Lapeyrouse. Life and scientific activities of this Toulouse naturalist are reviewed. He published in 1781 a remarkable description of the ‘Montagne des Cornes’ (eastern Pyrenees) rudists, named by him ‘orthoceratites’ and ‘ostracites’. The definition by Lamarck in 1801 of the genera Hippurites and Radiolites, and then of the Hippuritidae and Radiolitidae families by Gray 1848, were linked with the Lapeyrouse’s pioneer discoveries. To cite this article: M. Durand-Delga, J. Philip, C. R. Palevol 2 (2003) 181–196.