Jean Louis George '''Émilien Dumas''' (November 4, 1804 - September 21, 1873) was a French scholar, paleontologist, and geologist.

== Biography ==

Born to a Protestant family of the bourgeoisie in Gard, Émilien Dumas was immersed from his early childhood in an atmosphere of learning and erudition.  His father, a former merchant involved in agriculture, was an educated man.  The native flora of Gard provided him with his first field of study. From 1815 to 1824, he studied at Morges, Switzerland, then at Basel, where his passion for the natural sciences matured. He returned to his homeland in 1824 following the death of his mother.

Embarking on a career in the sciences, he went to Paris and studied at the Collège de France, the Ecole des Mines de Paris and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, and with Georges Cuvier,  Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Adrien-Henri de Jussieu.

His education in the natural sciences was well rounded, and he threw himself with equal passion into Zoology, Mineralogy, and Botany, as well as engaging in the contemporary debate over Lamarckism. 

In 1828, he returned to Sommières, where he married Pauline Borel, a wealthy heiress from Orange, and daughter of a silk manufacturer. The same year, he unveiled a rich paleontological dig site at Archaeozoology

He surveyed his region with great patience and tenacity over a period of 20 years, to produce a geological map of the Greek antiquities, botany, and geology.

Jean Louis George '''Émilien Dumas''', né le  Ax-sur-Ariège, est un érudit, un paléontologue et un géologue français.

== Biographie ==

Issu d'une famille de la bourgeoisie protestante du Gard, Émilien Dumas baigne dès son enfance dans une atmosphère d'érudition et d'étude. Son père, un négociant reconverti dans l'agriculture, est un homme instruit. La flore du Gard lui offre un premier terrain d'investigation auprès du docteur Dax. De 1815 à 1824, il étudie à Morges (Suisse), puis à Bâle, où sa passion pour les sciences naturelles mûrit et se confirme auprès du grand théologien protestant Alexandre Vinet (1797-1847). Il regagne sa terre natale en 1824 lors du décès de sa mère. 

Embrassant une véritable carrière scientifique, il gagne  Collège royal des mines et du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, de Lamarck (1744-1829). 

En Orange, Pauline Borel, fille d'un propriétaire de filature de soie. La même année, il met à jour le riche site paléontologique de Pondres (Gard) dont les éléments animaux et humains lui fournissent des arguments contre le fixisme, en particulier dans le domaine de l'archéozoologie.