[Musealia : Investigating a Cenozoic fossil fish, Does it come from Egypt or Italy?]

Every month, Sorbonne University  invites you to discover an object from its heritage collections. This month, discover the Cenozoic fossil fish.

Beyond its military aspect, which was a fiasco for the French army led by General Napoleon Bonaparte, the Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801) is of great scientific interest. The Commission of Sciences and Arts created in March 1798 on the occasion of this campaign brought together 167 artists and scientists from various disciplines who set off for Alexandria with the aim of studying Egypt in all its aspects. Among them were such famous names as Gaspard Monge, Joseph Fourier and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

All the studies and observations made by these scholars represent a monumental work recorded in a collection called the Description de l'Egypte (“Description of Egypt”), the writing of which began in 1809 and was completed in 1821. In the tradition of the Encyclopaedia of the Enlightenment, it is the reference work on Egyptology. Although the writings were brought back to France after the French defeat, some of the material was seized by the British, including the famous Rosetta Stone. On the other hand, many smaller objects were brought back to France in the luggage of returning scholars. This is clearly the case with this piece, collected by André Bruno de Frévol, Comte de la Coste (1775-1809).

It is particularly interesting to look at the information associated with this fossilised fish and to understand that, without this information, a specimen loses its scientific interest. Supposedly collected between 1798 and 1801, the marking on the stone was obviously made almost ten years after its discovery, i.e. after 1808. It was not until this date that the Comte de la Coste was appointed general after having been Napoleon’s faithful aide-de-camp.

However, according to Jean Gaudant, there is still uncertainty about the Egyptian origin of this fossil. This specialist in vertebrate palaeontology bases his opinion on the analysis of the limestone containing this famous fish, which seems to correspond more to the characteristics of the Monte-Bolca deposit near Verona (Italy) than to those of Djebel Tourah (Egypt). It is therefore not possible to exclude the hypothesis that this specimen may be a souvenir of General de la Coste’s Italian postings. The inscription would then be apocryphal or at least somewhat erroneous.

This example steeped in history illustrates how difficult it is to determine with certainty the origin of specimens in old collections. Whatever the date of its collection, whether it crossed the Mediterranean or the Alps in the luggage of General de la Coste, this fish is nonetheless a precious testimony to the very first fossil collections made when palaeontology was still in its infancy. Moreover, it should be noted that this fossil fish is one of the oldest samples in the palaeontology collection held at Sorbonne University.

By Maxime Perretta: Technician in charge of Heritage Collections, Sorbonne University Library Scientific Collections and Heritage Unit; and Rémi Gaillard: Deputy Director of the Sorbonne University Library

Data sheet

• Inventory number: SU.PAL.2017.0.109 
• Dimensions: Width: 16.1 cm; Height: 9 cm; Depth: 2.1 cm 
• Identification: Fish belonging to the Percoidei suborder (Actinopterygii class)
• Age: Cenozoic
• (Neogene [between 23.03 and 2.58 million years ago] or Eocene [between 56 and 23.03 million years ago])
• Origin: Egypt (or Italy?) 
• Inscription: “Stone brought from Egypt by Mr De la Coste, General of Engineers and aide-de-camp to His Majesty Napoleon I”
• Link to the 3D scan : SU.PAL.2017.0.109 - 3D model by SorbonNum (@SorbonNum) [68abea8] (sketchfab.com)

Bibliography

• Boudon, Jacques-Olivier, La campagne d'Égypte, Belin, 2018
• Gaudant, Jean, La crise messinienne et ses effets sur l’ichthyofaune néogène de la Méditerranée : le témoignage des squelettes en connexion de poissons téléostéens, in Néraudeau D. & Goubert E. (eds), l’Événement messinien : approches paléobiologiques et paléoécologiques. Geodiversitas, 2002, 24 (3), 691-710
• Gaudant, Jean, Une inscription apocryphe ! Géochronique, 73, 2000, p. 36

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