Félix Dujardin

Who was Félix Dujardin?

Félix Dujardin was a French biologist born in Tours. He is remembered for his research of protozoans and other invertebrates.

In 1840 he was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Toulouse, and during the following year was a professor of zoology and botany at Rennes. Later in his career he became a member of the French Académie des sciences. Concerning his educational background, Dujardin was largely self-taught.

Dujardin is primarily known for his work with microscopic animal life, and in 1834 proposed that a new group of one-celled organisms be called Rhizopoda; meaning "root-foot". The name was later changed to Protozoa. He refuted naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg's concept that microscopic organisms are "complete organisms" similar to higher animals .

In Foraminifera, he noticed an apparently formless life substance that he named "sarcode"; which was later renamed protoplasm by Hugo von Mohl. In addition, he conducted extensive research of invertebrate groups that included echinoderms, helminths and cnidarians.

In 1850 he was the first to describe the mushroom bodies, key structures in the insects' nervous system.