12 Facts About Philibert Commerson

Philibert Commerson studied in Montpellier, and for a time was a practicing physician.

Philibert Commerson was in contact with Carl Linnaeus, who encouraged him to study fish of the Mediterranean.

In 1766, Philibert Commerson joined Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation after being recommended for the position of naturalist by the Paris Academy of Sciences.

Philibert Commerson had previously drawn up an extensive programme of nature studies for the Marine Ministry, in which he elaborated the "three natural kingdoms" which a naturalist should investigate on a voyage around the world.

Bare acted as a nurse to Philibert Commerson, who was often ill, as well as assisting him in his scientific work.

Philibert Commerson's gender was only publicly discovered while the expedition was at Tahiti, but she remained with Commerson, nursing him and assisting him in his professional activities until the end of his life.

Philibert Commerson was an astute observer of the Tahitian people and culture, thanks in part to a remarkable lack of European prejudice compared to other early visitors to the island.

Philibert Commerson studied and collected plants wherever the expedition stopped; among others, he described the genus Bougainvillea.

The specific name honors Commercon, whose name is sometimes spelled Philibert Commerson, Lacepede used Commercon's drawings and notes to base his description on.

In 1804, The dolphin Philibert Commerson's dolphin is named by Lacepede after the French naturalist Philibert Commerson, who first described them in 1767 after sighting them in the Strait of Magellan.

In 1813, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire described Philibert Commerson's roundleaf bat, known as Philibert Commerson's leaf-nosed bat, which is a species of bat endemic to Madagascar.

Philibert Commerson Crater which is a caldera in the mountains of Reunion is named after him.