Philippe Taquet

Philippe Robert Taquet ( born April 25, 1940 in Saint- Quentin ) is a French vertebrate paleontologist who deals with dinosaurs. He was a professor at the Muséum National d' Histoire Naturelle ( MNHN ) in Paris.

Taquet studied at the Sorbonne with the first part of the French PhD ( Thèse 3eme Cycle) in 1965 and the second part ( Docteur ès Sciences) in 1973. Between 1965 and 1981 he was a researcher for the CNRS. 1981 to 2000 he was director of the Laboratory of Paleontology and the MNHN 1985-1990 Director of the MNHN. He also led the research group ( URA ) of the CNRS for Palaeoanatomy, phylogeny and palaeogeography.

In 1990 he became a corresponding and 2004 a full member of the Académie des sciences, the Vice President, he was from 2011 to 2012 and its president in 2013 and 2014.

Since 2004 he has been President of the Commission International pour l' histoire de la géologie ( INHIGEO ). Since 2001 he is honorary member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. He is an officer of the Legion of Honour and of the Ordre National du Mérite.

He was to field trips, especially in North Africa (Morocco, Niger), where he found as Ouranosaurus (1976, an Iguanodon -like dinosaur ) in Gadoufaoua from the Aptian of Niger a number of new dinosaur species. He found there also the huge crocodile Sarcosuchus from the Cretaceous. He was also in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Mongolia, Madagascar, Thailand and Laos to excavations. Overall, he named nine new species of dinosaurs: in addition to the mentioned Ouranosaurus Atlasaurus, Berberosaurus, Piveteausaurus, Chebsaurus, Genusaurus, Lurdusaurus, Pyroraptor, Tangvayosaurus, Tazoudasaurus and the type Valdosaurus nigeriensis ( with Peter Galton ).

1999 Nigersaurus taqueti was named in his honor.

Writings

• Dinosaur Impressions: Postcards from a Paleontologist, Cambridge University Press 1998
• L' Empreinte des Dinosaures, Ed. Odile Jacob, 2004
• Georges Cuvier ( Naissance d'un genie ), Ed. Odile Jacob, 2006