Auguste Pomel

Auguste Nicolas Pomel (20 September 1821, in Issoire – 1898) was a French geologist and paleontologist. He worked as a mines engineer in Algeria and became a specialist in north African vertebrate fossils.

A student of the Ecole des mines, he was later deported to Algeria for political reasons. In 1866 he was named curator of mines in Oran. From 1876 to 1882 he was member of the Senate (Oran division). In 1882 he was tasked with geological mapping of Algeria. He died in Dra-el-Mizan.

Pomel was also a prolific botanist, naming and describing many plant species and some genera as well. The genus Pomelia (Durando ex Pomel) from the family Apiaceae is named in his honor.

Published works

He was the author of nearly 100 publications on North Africa; his works include Sur les Alcyonaires fossiles Miocenes de l'Algerie (1868) and Des races indigènes de l'Algérie et du rôle que leur reservent leurs aptitudes (1871). Other written efforts by Pomel are:

• Catalogue méthodique et descriptif des vertébrés fossiles, 1853 – Catalog and description of vertebrate fossils.
• Classification méthodique et genera des échinides vivants et fossiles, 1883 – Classification of living and fossil Echinidae.
• Contributions a la classification méthodique des Crucifères, 1883 – Contributions to the methodical classification of Cruciferae.
• Une mission scientifique en Tunisie en 1877, 1884 – A scientific mission to Tunisia in 1877.
• Paléontologie ou description des animaux fossiles de l'Algérie, 1885–87 – Paleontology; a description of animal fossils from Algeria.
• Description stratigraphique générale de l'Algérie, 1889 – General stratigraphic description of Algeria.
• Caméliens et Cervidés, 1893 – Camelids and cervids.
• Les Rhinocéros quaternaire, 1895 – Quaternary rhinoceros.
• Les éléphants quaternaires, 1895 – Quaternary elephants.
• Singe et homme, 1896 – Monkeys and humans.