The Caudan Expedition: History and legacy of the echinoderm collections of the Université de Lyon
Résumé
Le Caudan ship departed from Lorient (France) on the 19th of August 1895, for 14 days of scientific exploration in the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean). The scientific team on board was comprised of René Koehler, professor from the Faculté de Lyon, Louis Roule, professor from the Faculté de Toulouse, Julien Thoulet, professor from the Faculté de Nancy, and Félix Le Dantec, preparer from the Faculté de Paris. During the expedition, 32 iterations of deep-sea probing and 28 iterations of dredging were conducted, from 180 to 2,200 meters deep, leading to a total of 550 animal species collected, among which 94 where unknown at the time. The goal of this expedition was to bring back to the Université de Lyon deep-sea specimens that only the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris had at the time. Le Caudan was one of the last expeditions in the Bay of Biscay before a 60 year long period of disinterest for studying the fauna of this region, and it was the first to have been launched from private initiative and without funding from the French state. Nowadays, 256 taxa are housed in the Caudan collection at the Université de Lyon, including 270 specimens of echinoderms. Representing 52 species (23 asteroids, 11 echinoids, nine holoturoids, seven ophiuroids, and two crinoids), the Caudan collection holds 14 type specimens of eight new - at the time - species: Antedon flava, Asteronyx locardi, Benthogone rosea, Cribrella bascayensis, C. caudani, Holothuria roulei, Ophiactis corallicola, and Pentagonaster kergroheni.