Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest
{{Short description|French zoologist (1784–1838)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest
| image = Anselme Gaetan Desmarest 1784-1838.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth date|1784|3|6|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|1838|6|4|1784|3|6|df=y}}
| death_place =
| fields = Zoology
| workplaces = École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort
| known_for = Histoire Naturelle des Tangaras, des Manakins et des Todiers
| awards = American Philosophical Society, Académie Nationale de Médecine
| author_abbrev_zoo = Desmarest
| children = Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest
| father = Nicolas Desmarest
}}
Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest (6 March 1784 – 4 June 1838) was a French zoologist and author. He was the son of Nicolas Desmarest and the father of Eugène Anselme Sébastien Léon Desmarest.{{cite web |url=http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.d.html |title=Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest |work=Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names |author=Hans G. Hansson |publisher=Göteborgs Universitet |access-date=September 21, 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101027104740/http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.d.html| archive-date= 27 October 2010 | url-status= live}}
Career
Desmarest was a disciple of Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart, and in 1815, he succeeded Pierre André Latreille to the professorship of zoology at the {{Lang|fr|École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort}}. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1819{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1819&year-max=1819&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-05|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} and to the Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1820.
Publications
Desmarest published {{lang|fr|Histoire Naturelle des Tangaras, des Manakins et des Todiers}} (1805), {{lang|fr|Considérations générales sur la classe des crustacés}} (1825), {{lang|fr|Mammalogie ou description des espèces des Mammifères}} (1820), and {{lang|fr|Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles}} (1816–30, with André Marie Constant Duméril). His Mammalogie was significant as it contained a comprehensive list of all mammals known at the time, including living forms and extinct forms known only from fossils. Desmarest was one of the first scientists to routinely apply both genus and species names to animals. Prior to his time, it was common practice to give only a genus name to a new animal.{{Cite journal |last=Babcock |first=Loren E. |date=2024-03-18 |title=Nomenclatural history of Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799 (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae) |url=https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/117999/ |journal=ZooKeys |language=en |issue=1195 |pages=297–308 |doi=10.3897/zookeys.1195.117999 |doi-access=free |issn=1313-2970|pmc=10964019 }}
Legacy
The common name, Desmarest's hutia, honors Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest, who described the species in 1822 under the synonym fourniere.
The brown algae Desmarestia is named in honour of Desmarest,{{cite journal|last1=Lamouroux|first1=Jean Vincent Félix|author-link1=Jean Vincent Félix Lamouroux|title=Essai sur les genres de la famille des thalassiophytes non articulées|journal=Annales du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris|date=1813|volume=20|pages=43–45|url=http://img.algaebase.org/pdf/562E29B40301733B85MQrj41D8EE/17071.pdf|access-date=11 December 2017|publisher=G. Dufour et cie|location=Paris|language=fr|oclc=2099267|archive-date=30 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630081402/http://img.algaebase.org/pdf/562E29B40301733B85MQrj41D8EE/17071.pdf|url-status=live}} as well as the family (Desmarestiaceae) — and in turn, the order (Desmarestiales) — of which the genus is the type species.
References
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Category:French carcinologists
Category:French ornithologists
Category:18th-century French zoologists
Category:19th-century French zoologists
Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society
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