Maurice Cossmann
Maurice Cossmann, full name Alexandre Édouard Maurice Cossmann was a French paleontologist and malacologist.
Maurice Cossmann's father was an artist draughtsman and a talented lithographer. His early education was at Condorcet College in Paris and he later gained the Diploma of the Central School of Arts and Manufacturing in the same city. He was then employed by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord. Cossmann made all his career there, finally as Chief of the Engineering services. Married and without a child, he loved to tell how the arrival of a small collection of fossils had led to his future studies of paleontology. Cossman specialised in the fossils of the Paleogene and Neogene periods. Certain of his works are still a major reference especially:
- Iconographie complète des coquilles fossiles de l'Éocène des environs de Paris, in English Iconography of the fossil shells of the Eocene of the Paris basin) written with G. Pissaro and
- Conchyliologie néogénique de l’Aquitaine in English Neogene Conchology of Aquitaine with A. Peyrot.