Charles-Alexandre Lesueur

Charles Alexandre Lesueur ( born January 1, 1778 in Le Havre, † December 12, 1846 in Sainte-Adresse, Seine- Maritime) was a French naturalist, explorer and painter. His official biological author abbreviation is " Les. ".

Life and work

The self-taught Ch.A. Lesueur acted as artist Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) in 1801 and his expedition to survey the coast of Australia ( Baudin expedition ). On this journey he was friends with the zoologist François Péron.

Together with François Péron (1775-1810), he took over the scientific agendas of the expedition after the originally planned zoologist René Maugé de Cely († 1802) fell ill during the voyage and died in 1802 in Tasmania. Together they documented over 100,000 zoological species and thus contributed significantly to the study of Australian fauna and success of Baudin's expedition at.

From 1815 to 1837 lived Lesueur in the U.S., first in Philadelphia, where he was one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and from 1826 to 1837 in New Harmony, Indiana. He studied mostly fish and turtles, and has published numerous articles in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

Lesueur was one of the pioneers of lithography in the United States. He returned in 1837 to France. In 1844, he received the Silver Medal of the Société libre des Beaux -Arts in Paris. In recognition of his scientific life's work, he was appointed Chevalier de l' Order de la Légion d' Honneur. In 1845 he was offered the city of Le Havre, the position of a curator of the Natural History Museum, Museum d' Histoire Naturelle du Havre where half of the collection was contributed by himself.

After the Mount Lesueur Lesueur are named with the Lesueur National Park in Western Australia north of Perth.