Félix Dujardin

Félix Dujardin

Félix Dujardin, painting by his daughter, 1847
Born April 5, 1801
Tours, France
Died April 8, 1860
Rennes, France
Residence Rennes, France
Citizenship French
Nationality French
Fields Biology Parasitology
Institutions University of Rennes, France
Known for protozoans helminths
Author abbrev. (botany) Dujard.

Signature

Eucoleus aerophilus (Creplin, 1839) Dujardin, 1845 (Nematoda), an example of parasite on which Dujardin worked

Félix Dujardin (April 5, 1801 – April 8, 1860) was a French biologist born in Tours. He is remembered for his research of protozoans and other invertebrates.

In 1840 he was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Toulouse, and during the following year was a professor of zoology and botany at Rennes. Later in his career he became a member of the French Académie des sciences. In regard to his educational background, Dujardin was largely self-taught.

Dujardin is largely known for his work with microscopic animal life, and in 1834 proposed that a new group of one-celled organisms be called "Rhizopoda"; meaning "root-foot". The name was later changed to "Protozoa". He refuted naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg's concept that microscopic organisms are "complete organisms" similar to higher animals. In addition to his studies of microscopic life, he did extensive research of invertebrate groups that included echinoderms, helminths and cnidarians.

In Foraminifera, he noticed an apparently formless life substance that he named "sarcode", which was later renamed protoplasm by Hugo von Mohl (1805–1872). In 1850[1] he was the first to describe the mushroom bodies,[2] key structures in the insects' nervous system.

Bibliography

A plate from Histoire naturelle des helminthes ou vers intestinaux

The standard author abbreviation Dujard is applied to species he described.

References

  1. Strausfeld NJ, Hansen L, Li Y, Gomez RS, Ito K (1998). "Evolution, Discovery, and Interpretations of Arthropod Mushroom Bodies". Learn. Mem. 5 (1–2): 11–37. PMC 311242. PMID 10454370.
  2. Dujardin, F. 1850. Mémoire sur le système nerveux des insectes. Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool. 14: 195-206.

External sources

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