Maurice Jules Marie Collignon (9 June 1893, Saint-Malo – 21 October 1978, Moirans) was a French geologist and paleontologist, who is best known for his research of Cretaceous period ammonites from Madagascar.

A career military officer, in 1914 he received his diploma from the military academy at Saint-Cyr, then spent the next 36 years associated with the French armed services. In the meantime he conducted geological and paleontological research; as early as 1928 he was providing descriptions of ammonite fauna from Madagascar.^[1] In 1950 he retired from military service with the rank of major general. He then joined the Service géologique d'outre-mer as a paleontologist,^[2][3] and afterwards directed four 6-month missions of paleontological exploration in Madagascar (1952, 1953, 1954, 1957).^[1]

From 1959 to 1978 he was a correspondent member of the Académie des sciences.^[3] During his career, he described numerous fossil taxa, such as the ammonite genus Cunningtoniceras. The ammonite family Collignoniceratidae commemorates his name.^[4][5]

Principal works

• Ammonites néocrétacées du Ménabe (Madagascar), 6 volumes, 1948-56 – Neo-Cretaceous ammonites of Menabe.
• Recherches sur les faunes albiennes de Madagascar, 5 volumes, 1949-51 – Research of Albian fauna of Madagascar.
• Atlas des fossiles caractéristiques de Madagascar, (multi-volume, 1958 ff.) – Atlas of characteristic fossils of Madagascar.^[6][7]

References