Alcide d'Orbigny provenía de una familia de médicos especializados en las ciencias naturales. Antes de cumplir 20 años, ya era un naturalista avezado y de prestigio. Visitó Sudamérica enviado por el Museo de Historia Natural de París en viaje de exploración científica. En 1834, D'Orbigny volvió a Francia y escribió su monumental obra en nueve volúmenes Voyage dans l'Amerique Méridionale
Abstract from English Wikipedia: <blockquote>"Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 - 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthropology. D'Orbigny was born in Couëron (Loire-Atlantique), the son of a ship's physician and amateur naturalist. The family moved to La Rochelle in 1820, where his interest in natural history was developed while studying the marine fauna and especially the microscopic creatures that he named "foraminiferans". In Paris he became a disciple of the geologist Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier (1777-1861) and Georges Cuvier. All his life, he would follow the theory of Cuvier and stay opposed to Lamarckism."</blockquote>