Léon Vaillant
French zoologist (1834-1914)
Léon Louis Vaillant (French pronunciation: [leɔ̃ lwi vajɑ̃]; 11 November 1834 – 24 November 1914) was a French zoologist. He is most famous for his work in the areas of herpetology, malacology, and ichthyology.
After graduating from the College d'Arras in 1854, he studied medicine and zoology in Paris. He received his medical doctorate in 1861, then continued his zoological studies with Henri Milne-Edwards (1800–1885), earning his degree in natural sciences in 1865. He became a professor at the Museum of Natural History, Paris, in 1875.
Vaillant held a special interest involving the systematics and anatomy of turtles and crocodiles, but he also made significant contributions through his investigations of reptilian physiology and behavior. Of his 200-plus scientific writings, 90 of them are based on herpetological subjects.
He participated in French naval expeditions on the Travailleur in 1880, 1881 and 1882, and on the Talisman in 1883.
Eponyms
There are several species of marine organisms named after Vaillant:
The ribbon worm, Amphiporus vaillanti (Joubin, 1902)
The squat lobster, Munidopsis vaillantii (A. Milne-Edwards, 1881)
Solamen vaillanti (Issel, 1869)
Solariella vaillanti (Dautzenberg & H. Fischer, 1896)
Turbonilla vaillanti (Dautzenberg & Fischer, 1896)
There are four species of reptiles named after him:
Chioninia vaillantii (Boulenger, 1887)
Micrelaps vaillanti (Mocquard, 1888)
Liophidium vaillanti (Mocquard, 1901)
Dopasia ludovici (Mocquard, 1905)
The following fish are named after Vaillant:
Bagrichthys vaillantii (Popta, 1906)
The dragon fish, Bathophilus vaillanti (Zugmayer, 1911)
The shortspine African angler, Lophius vaillanti (Regan, 1903)
The pike cichlid Crenicichla vaillanti (Pellegrin, 1904)
Paraliparis vaillanti (Chernova, 2004) is a species of snailfish found in the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean primarily in the Laurentia Channel, between Newfoundland and Cape Breton.
The Samurai gourami, Sphaerichthys vaillanti (Pellegrin, 1930)
Thynnichthys vaillanti (Weber & de Beaufort, 1916)
Astroblepus vaillanti (Regan, 1904)
Pseudomystus vaillanti (Regan, 1913)
The following fish are possibly named after him:
Pseudogobio vaillanti (Sauvage, 1878)
Hypostomus vaillanti (Steindachner, 1877) is a species of catfish in the family Loricariidae.
The public source identifies “Léon Vaillant” as french zoologist (1834-1914). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Léon, Vaillant and French.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q577418. VIAF identifies the subject as 30319977. The Library of Congress control number is nr00017340. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1834, 1914, 1854 and 1861.
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