Aretz et al_2011.pdf - ORBi - Université de Liège

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Kölner Forum Geol. Paläont., 19 (2011)
M. ARETZ, S. DELCULÉE, J. DENAYER & E. POTY (Eds.)
Abstracts, 11th Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Sponges, Liège, August 19-29, 2011
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French palaeontologists and the study of Palaeozoic corals in North Africa
in the XXth century.
Bruno MISTIAEN 1 & Francis TOURNEUR 2
1 Laboratoire de Paléontologie stratigraphique, FLST – ISA, Géosystèmes FRE 3298, 41 rue du Port, 59046
Lille cedex, France; bruno.mistiaen@isa-lille.fr
2 Pierres et Marbres de Wallonie ASBL, 11 rue des Pieds d’Alouettes, B-5100 Naninne, Belgium;
francis.tourneur@pierresetmarbres.be
The Devono-Carboniferous strata of Northern Africa, which rich in corals and other reefal organisms,
were not well known prior to the First World War. Later, intensive research was carried out, often for
natural resources as petroleum and gas, in those countries then depending on France (mostly in Morocco
and Algeria), but also in neighbouring regions. The first palaeontologists which worked on corals and
reefal organismens were Dorothée LE MAÎTRE and Geneviève TERMIER – the later usually publishing papers
with her husband, Henri TERMIER.
Dorothée LE MAÎTRE (1896-1990) was born in Brittany. She studied in Lille at the Université catholique,
where she presented in 1928 for her first degree a work on Devonian faunas from the Avesnois (Northern
France), and six years later, in 1934, her doctoral thesis on the Devonian limestones of the Loire region
(Ancenis). She concentrated her attention on corals, Tabulata and Rugosa, and on stromatoporoids. Already
before the Second World War, she took part in field campaigns in Morocco, and later in Algeria, to study
numerous outcrops and to gather large collections. She carefully described these faunas in thick
monographies, but she also published many short notes on new taxa, or on the stratigraphical value or
palaeogeographical significance of the fossil corals. A large monography on the Devonian tabulate corals of
Northern Africa was in good way of preparation when she retired in 1966 from Lille to Britanny, where
shed died in 1990, without finishing the work which remains unpublished. In the same way, many faunal
lists, where she identified fossils collected by petroleum geologists, remained in unpublished reports of oil
companies.
Geneviève DELPEY (1917-2005), born in Paris, was a very skillfull student, not only in Science but also in
Art, where she exceled in drawing – this explains why she drawed thousands of fossils and animal during
her long scientific career! After a brilliant thesis on Mesozoic gastropods from Lebanon, at the Sorbonne in
1939, she went to Morocco in 1942, where she married in 1945 Henri TERMIER (1897-1989), the nephew of
the famous French geologist Pierre TERMIER (1859-1930). Henri TERMIER was then the director of the
geological survey of Morocco. They moved in 1946 to Algiers, to teach at the university, and returned in
1955 to France, where Henri obtained a chair at the Sorbonne University. They published together many
books, treatises (e.g. Histoire géologique de la biosphère, 1952) and of course a huge quantity of papers on
all possible subjects in palaeontology. A small part of this very large scientific production is dealing with
corals and “sponges” sensu lato. Even if their interpretations are often questionable, the observations
always revealed a very acute look, reflected in the numerous inimitable drawings – making from these
works an interesting contribution to the knowledge of the faunas.
All these faunas are in urgent need of revisions – they of course constitue a fondamental element to
understand the palaeogeography of the Devono-Carboniferous.
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