Alexandre Brongniart is not only director of…

Alexandre Brongniart is not only director of the porcelain works at Sèvres: he is also a chemist, mineralogist, and zoologist.

He has introduced a new classification of reptiles and written several treatises on mineralogy and the ceramic arts.

He has also made an extensive study of trilobites and developed fossil markers for dating strata; he names the Jurassic period for the extensive marine limestone exposures of the Jura Mountains, in the region where Germany, France and Switzerland meet.