Paleophilatelie.eu is a focal point between Paleontology and Philately
France
Paleontology related stamps (dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, paleontologists, contributor to Paleontology science etc.)
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Philately: The first stamps of France were issued on 1 January 1849. In last years issue France over 200 (!) stamps every year.
Sometimes imperforated French are offered by some dealers, especially in Internet. These stamps are printed in very small quantities and offered to the authorities (Postmaster General, Minister's office, prefects, designer of stamp, etc.). And sometimes these authorities sell them to traders who, themselves, sell them to collectors. These imperforated "stamps" are not valid for postage and can not be used for franking letters.
Click on image to enlarge it.
Click on year number to see all Paleontology and Paleoanthropology related stamps issued in the year.
| 14.11.1949 "Famous persons" [1] | 15.06.1957 "Famous persons" [2] | 10-17.05.1969 "Famous persons" [3] |
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| 15.10.1977 "100 anniversary of Abbe Breuil" [4] | 23.05.1981
"100 anniversary of Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin " [5] |
20.6.1992 "Tautavel Man" |
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| 05.06.1993 "Bicentennial of Natural History Museum" [6] | 17.06.2000 "Natural History Museum" [6] | |
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| 21.08.2008 "Prehistoric animals" | 01.06.2010 "Institute of Human Paleontology" [7] | |
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| 04.01.2014 "Dynamic" [8] | ||
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Notes:
[1] Georges
Buffon (1709-1788) depicted on stamp with face value of
12+4F
He envisioned the nature of science and understood the roles of
paleontology, zoological geography, and animal psychology. He realized
both the necessity of transformism and its difficulties. Although his
cosmogony was inadequate and his theory of animal reproduction was
weak, and although he did not understand the problem of classification,
he did establish the intellectual framework within which most
naturalists up to Darwin worked.Buffon is considered the founder of
evolutionary theory. George Buffon set forth his general views on
species classification in the first volume of his "Histoire
Naturelle".Buffon objected to the so-called "artificial"
classifications of Andrea Cesalpino and Carolus linnaeus, stating that
in nature the chain of life has small gradations from one type to
another and that the discontinuous categories are all artificially
constructed by mankind. 
[2] Bernard
Palissy (1510–1589) depicted on stamp with face
value of
12+3F.who was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and
craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate
Chinese porcelain. In the 19th-century, Palissy's pottery became the
inspiration for Mintons Ltd's Victorian majolica, which was exhibited
at the Great Exhibition of 1851 under the name "Palissy ware".Palissy
is known for his contributions to the natural sciences, and is famous
for discovering principles of geology, hydrology and fossil
formation.He was one of the first Europeans to enunciate the correct
theory of the origin of fossils Palissy correctly maintained that
fossils were the remains of once living organisms, and contested the
prevailing view that they had been produced by the biblical flood, or
by astrological influence. He argued that minerals, dissolving into
water to form "congelative water," would precipitate and thereby
petrify once living organisms in order to create fossils.
[3] Some catalogs listed these
3 stamps as a set, some other as individual stamps. Pink
stamp shows Georges
Cuvier (1769-1852), was a French naturalist and zoologist,
sometimes referred to as the "father of
paleontology".
Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early
19th century, and was instrumental in establishing the fields of
comparative anatomy and paleontology
through his work in comparing
living animals with fossils.
He is well known for establishing
extinction as a fact, being the most influential proponent of
catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing the
evolutionary theories of Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. His most
famous work is the Le Rgne Animal (1817; English: The Animal
Kingdom). In 1800, Cuvier was the first to correctly identify
in print, working only from a drawing, a fossil found in Bavaria as a
small flying reptile, which he named the Ptero-Dactyle in
1809 (later
Latinized as Pterodactylus antiquus)--the first known member of the
diverse order of pterosaurs.
In 1808 Cuvier identified a fossil found
in Maastricht as giant marine lizard, which he named Mosasaurus, the
first known mosasaur. Cuvier speculated that there had been a time when
reptiles rather than mammals had been the dominant fauna. [4] Henri Edouard Prosper Breuil (1877-1961) , often referred to as Abbe Breuil, was a French archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He is noted for his studies of cave art in the Somme and Dordogne valleys as well as in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, China with Teilhard de Chardin, Ethiopia, Somaliland and especially Southern Africa.
[5] Pierre Teilhard de Chadrin (1881-1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere. Some of his ideas came into conflict with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, and several of his books were censured.
From 1912 to 1914, Teilhard worked in the paleontology laboratory of the Muse National d'Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, studying the mammals of the middle Tertiary period. Later he studied elsewhere in Europe.
[6] Natural History Museum in Paris is one of the oldest natural history museums in the world, has very big fossils collection of prehistoric humand and prehistoric animals, include dinosaurs. On them depicted on stamp from 2000.
[7] joint issue with Monaco
[8] On
January 6, 2014 Post Authority of France issued a booklet of 12
self adhesive stamps with permanent validity and costs of the
domestic priority
letter up to 20 gr. Dynamic lines, swirling
movement
of life, in nature, in construction, in craft in art . The
booklet highlights the mystery of motion, especially that of
the
spiral. One of these stamp is depicted an ammonite."Ammonites were free-swimming molluscs of the ancient oceans, living around the same time that the dinosaurs walked the Earth and disappearing during the same extinction event. They came in a range of sizes, from tiny species only a couple of centimetres across, to large ones reaching over two metres in diameter. The animal would have lived in the last and largest of a chain of spiralled chambers. Filling these chambers with fluid or gas allowed the ammonite to sink like a stone to avoid predators, though ammonite shells with toothmarks on them have been found, evidence that it didn't always work. Fossilised shells are usually, but not always, beautiful spirals." BBC
Personalized stamps
There are a list of only some personalized stamps issued in France
| 11.05.2008 | xx.xx.2010 | 23.11.2011 |
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| 09.12.2014 | 19.05.2016 | |
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Cave painting of prehistoric animals
| 13.04.1969 "Cave painting of Lascaux cave" | 17.01.1978 "Zodiac" [A1] |
17.07.1979 "Tourism" |
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| 12.01.1981 "Historical Constructions" [A2] | 27.05.2006 "50 years since discovery of cave painting of prehistoric animals of Grotte de Rouffignac" | |
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Notes:
[A1] During
1977 and 1978 (01.04.1977, 17.01.1978, 01.07.1978) Post of France issued a set Zodiac
definitive stamps. Each time 4 stamps are printed. Ammonite
depicted on the right buttom corner of the Crab stamp. 
[A2] Part of set of 4 stamps
Acknowledge: Many thanks to Dominique Robillard for his help and very valuable feedback.
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Latest update 10.03.2017
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