Born December 23 1938 in Uccle (Brussels), Belgium.
Education and professional career
- 1960 : Licence ès sciences naturelles (teaching license and doctorate), Paris
- 1961-1962 : Trainee assistant at the Faculty of Science, Paris
- 1962-1969 : Assistant at the comparative anatomy laboratory of the Paris Faculty of Science (vertebrate zoology)
- 1963 : Doctor of3rd cycle (histology and cytology). Honorable mention. (Jury Professors M. Prenant, R. Couteaux, Y. François)
- 1965 : Enrolled on the "Liste d'aptitude aux fonctions de maître assistant" (LAFMA)
- 1965-1966 : Military service. Active service, Air Force EOR, then scientific detachment to the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), reserve lieutenant (Air Force)
- 1970 : Trainee assistant professor
- 1971 : Senior assistant (animal biology - zoology) at the comparative anatomy laboratory of the Paris Faculty of Science, member of the research team " Skeletal formations " (director: Prof. Y. François) of the Biology and Genetics UER of the University of Paris-VII
- 1973 : Doctoral thesis. Mention : very honourable. (Jury: Professor J. Piveteau, Ch. Devilliers, J. P. Lehman and Y. François)
- 1973 : Enrolled on the liste d'aptitude à l'enseignement supérieur (restricted list)
- 1973 : Co-director of the " Skeletal formations" research team
- 1975-1982 : Lecturer : Comparative anatomy, paleontology, biosystematics, zoology
- 1979-1980 : Visiting Professor, Department of Anatomy, The University of Chicago and Visiting Curator, Department of Geology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
- 1983 : Professor, Université Paris-VII (evolutionary biology)
- 1987 : Professeur de première classe
- 1995-2010 : Professor at the Collège de France, Chair of Historical Biology and Evolutionism
