Born:
May 23, 1817, Paris
Died:
May 10, 1875, Nice, Fr. (aged 57)
Subjects Of Study:
Floridae
Fucus
algae
brown algae
fertilization

Gustave-Adolphe Thuret (born May 23, 1817, Paris—died May 10, 1875, Nice, Fr.) French botanist who gave the first accounts of fertilization in the brown algae. After receiving a law degree in 1838, Thuret began to study botany under Joseph Decaisne. He became interested in the history and behaviour of the marine algae and in about 1840 described the flagella (whiplike structures) of the spermatozoids (male sex cells) of the green alga Chara. In 1844 Decaisne and Thuret announced the finding of spermatozoids in the brown marine alga Fucus. In 1854 Thuret described an egg of Fucus surrounded by ciliated spermatozoids, ...(100 of 172 words)