François Prat

François Prat (1924–2007)

Born in Bordeaux, François Prat became a teacher before being posted to the Faculty of Science in Bordeaux in 1950. From 1956 onwards, he was assistant to François Bordes, who had just been appointed to the post of senior lecturer and who would become a professor six years later. François Prat became a university professor in 1983 and was appointed director of the Institut du Quaternaire.

His field of research was the palaeontology of Quaternary mammals, which led him to devote his doctorate, defended in 1968, to Equidae. He was also involved in the study of other families (Cervidae, Ursidae and Bovidae) and the study of animal associations in order to identify their environmental significance.

He worked at Font-de-Gaume on two occasions: between 1958 and 1964, when he carried out an excavation that uncovered Châtelperron points in the "bear layer", and in 1967–1968, when he carried out a rescue excavation.