Armand de Ricqlès

Armand de Ricqlès
Born 23 December 1938
Brussels, Belgium
Education doctorate 1963, University of Paris
Employer Collège de France (retired)
Title Professor of Historical and Evolutionary Biology (retired)

Armand de Ricqlès is a French paleontologist best known for his work in bone histology and its implications for the growth of dinosaurs (e.g.,[1]).

Biography

Early life

He was born on 23 December 1938 in Brussels, Belgium. He obtained his first university degree in natural sciences from the University of Paris in 1960, and his doctorate in 1963.[2] His thesis was supervised by Marcel Prenant, and focused on histology.

He also did a larger "Doctorat d'état" (a degree that no longer exists but that was required at the time to supervise doctoral students or for academic advancement). That thesis was published as several papers in the Annales de Paléontologie.

Career

He worked in the University of Paris from 1961 (before completing his thesis, as was then customary in France) till 1995, when he was nominated to the Historical and Evolutionary Biology Chair of the Collège de France. He officially retired in 2010, but he continues publishing. By the time that he retired, he had published 104 scientific papers and about 120 semi-popular papers.[2][3] By 2010, his work had received at least 1575 ISI citations.[2]

Armand de Ricqlès initially worked on the functional significance of extant histodiversity,[4][5] and applied this newly gained knowledge in paleobiological inferences.[6] He has collaborated with several other histologists and paleontologists, including Timothy G. Bromage, John R. Horner, and Kevin Padian. In his career, he influenced several students, but he formally trained a single doctoral student, Vivian de Buffrénil, who is currently working in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.

Through these collaborations, he has studied the growth, physiology,[1] habitat (aquatic to terrestrial)[7][8] and other paleobiological aspects[9] of various limbed vertebrates. He has also made some contributions to the history of bone histology,[10] and has written some papers on the problems facing French scientists because of the infamous French bureaucracy.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Padian K, Horner JR, de Ricqlès A. 2004. Growth in small dinosaurs and pterosaurs: the evolution of archosaurian growth strategies. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24: 555–571.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Laurin M. 2011. A preliminary biography of Armand de Ricqlès (1938–), the great synthesizer of bone histology. Comptes rendus Palevol 10: 293–301.
  3. ↑ Laurin M. 2011. A preliminary list of publications by A. de Ricqlès. Comptes rendus Palevol 10: 311–321.
  4. ↑ de Ricqlès A. 1975. Recherches paléohistologiques sur les os longs des tétrapodes VII. — Sur la classification, la signification fonctionnelle et l'histoire des tissus osseux des tétrapodes. Première partie. Annales de Paléontologie 61: 51-129.
  5. ↑ Bromage TG, Juwayeyi YM, Smolyar I, Hu B, Gomez S, Scaringi VJ, Chavis S, Bondalapati P, Kaur K, Chisi J. 2011. Signposts ahead: Hard tissue signals on rue Armand de Ricqlès. Comptes rendus Palevol 10: 499–507.
  6. ↑ Padian K. 2011. Vertebrate palaeohistology then and now: A retrospective in the light of the contributions of Armand de Ricqlès. Comptes rendus Palevol 10: 303–309.
  7. ↑ de Ricqlès A. 1974. Recherches paléohistologiques sur les os longs des tétrapodes V. — Cotylosaures et mésosaures. Annales de Paléontologie 60: 171-216.
  8. ↑ de Ricqlès A. 1981. Recherches paléohistologiques sur les os longs des tétrapodes. VI.—Stégocéphales. Annales de Paléontologie 67: 141-160.
  9. ↑ Main RP, de Ricqlès A, Horner JR, Padian K. 2005. The evolution and function of thyreophoran dinosaur scutes: implications for plate function in stegosaurs. Paleobiology 31: 291–314.
  10. ↑ de Ricqlès A. 2011. Vertebrate palaeohistology: Past and future. Comptes rendus Palevol 11: 509–515.
  11. ↑ de Ricqlès A. 2007. Quelques réflexions sur la recherche scientifique fondamentale en France. La Lettre du Collège de France. 19: 23-25.