In 1778, abbey Charles Bacheley (1716-1795), a Norman naturalist, reported the presence of fossil bones in the Callovo-Oxfordian formations, either the Marnes de Dives or the overlying Marnes de Villers, probably the former, exposed at the foot of the Vaches Noires cliffs between Villers-sur-Mer and Houlgate. These fossil materials contained theropod vertebrae and marine crocodilian remains. After the death of Bacheley, his fossil cabinet was acquired by the "Ecole centrale de Rouen". Louis-Benoît Guersent (1777–1848), professor of natural history in this school, drew the attention of Georges Cuvier to this remarkable fossil bones. With the agreement of the prefect of Seine-Inférieure, count Jacques Claude Beugnot, Guersent sent the collection to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. In 1800, these fossils were briefly mentioned by Georges Cuvier who misspelled the name of their former owner as Bachelet.