Joachim Barrande

Joachim Barrande (born Aug. 11, 1799, Saugues, Fr.—died Oct. 5, 1883, Frohsdorf, Austria) was a geologist and paleontologist whose studies of the fossil strata of Bohemia revealed the abundance and rich variety of life in the Early Paleozoic era (the Paleozoic lasted from 540 million to 245 million years ago).

The tutor of the grandson of Charles X, the king of France, he joined the royal family in exile in 1830. They settled temporarily in Prague in 1832, and Barrande remained there. While working as an engineer, he became interested in the fossils of the region, and, when he realized the striking similarity between the strata of Britain, as described by the noted British geologist Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and the strata in Bohemia, he began an intensive geological study. His primary work, Système silurien du centre de la Bohême (1852–94; “Silurian System of Central Bohemia”), complete with excellent drawings, is still used as a reference work. In it he identified and analyzed more than 4,000 new fossil species.