Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Saint-Avit-Sénieur, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
About Léo Testut
- Leo Testut (22 March 1849 – 16 January 1925) was a French physician and anatomist, born in Saint-Avit-Sénieur, Dordogne. He was born Jean Leo Testut on 22 March 1849, the son of Jean Testut and Marie Deynat.
- He studied medicine in Bordeaux.
- His studies were interrupted because of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870; he was readmitted to the Bordeaux School of Medicine in 1878.
- He completed his studies with a thesis for which he obtained medals from several universities in France.
- He was named Professor of Anatomy of the Bordeaux School of Medicine and continued his investigations in anthropology in other universities.
- He contributed over 90 publications on anatomy, anthropology, prehistory and history, but his most noteworthy achievement has been as author of Traité d´anatomie humaine, a complete, well-written, and well-illustrated work of anatomy composed of four volumes that continues to be used in many countries to the present day.
- The illustrations present in this book continue to be a major source of reference to other anatomy books.
- The book is well-known in medical schools, where it is considered the standard anatomy textbook.
- He collected the material published from personal notes and drawings after having failed anatomy exams several times during medical school, until he finally passed. In 1889, Léo Testut announced that a prehistoric skull, found in Chancelade, was of a new race, which he called the "Chancelade race", which he argued was the ancestor of the Eskimo.
- This hypothesis, though confirmed by many of his contemporaries, is now rejected, and the Chancelade skull is considered to be a Cro-Magnon.
- Leo Testut died on 16 January 1925 in Bordeaux.
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