Gabriel Bibron

Who was Gabriel Bibron?

Gabriel Bibron was a French zoologist, and herpetologist. He was born in Paris. Son of an employee of the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, he had a good foundation in natural history and was hired to collect vertebrates in Italy and Sicily. Under the direction of Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, he took part in the Morea expedition to Peloponnese.

He classified a large number of reptile species with André Marie Constant Duméril, whom he had met in 1832. Dumeril was interested mainly in the relations between genera, and he left to Bibron the task of describing the species. Working together they produced the Erpétologie Générale, a comprehensive account of the reptiles, published in ten volumes from 1834 to 1854. Also, Bibron assisted Duméril with teaching duties at the museum and was an instructor at a primary school in Paris.

Bibron contracted tuberculosis and retired in 1845 to Saint-Alban-les-Eaux, where he died at the age of 42.