Claude Jourdan, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Claude Jourdan

French zoologist and paleontologist

Date of Birth: 18-Jun-1803

Place of Birth: Heyrieux, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Date of Death: 12-Feb-1873

Profession: physician, zoologist, university teacher, paleontologist

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Claude Jourdan (18 June 1803, in Heyrieux – 12 February 1873, in Lyon) was a French zoologist and paleontologist. In Lyon he was a professor of zoology to the Faculté des sciences, and a professor of comparative anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts.
From 1832 to 1869 he was director of the Musée d'histoire naturelle - Guimet in Lyons.As a zoologist, he conducted studies of living and extinct vertebrates, including Proboscidea (elephants and their ancestors).
In 1840–48 he is credited with uncovering 2000 fossils at various excavation sites in France.
As a taxonomist, he described Acerodon, a genus of Old World fruit bats, and Hemigalus, a monospecific genus associated with the banded palm civet, Hemigalus derbyanus.
He also classified the following mammal species: Golden Atlantic tree-rat, Phyllomys blainvilii. Western brush wallaby, Macropus irma.In 1839 Jules Bourcier named the rufous-shafted woodstar, Chaetocercus jourdanii, after him.
It is sometimes referred to as "Jourdan's woodstar".