In March 1872 Rivière discovered an entire fossil human skeleton in a cave at Menton, in the south of France near the Italian border. The skeleton, later known as “Menton man,” closely resembles the Cro-Magnon remains, later classified as European Early Modern Humans, from the Dordogne region. Rivière had the skeleton photographed in situ by Anfossi and Radiguet; two of their superb original photographs serve as plates to the present work. These appear to be the earliest published photographs of fossil humans. 

The Menton skeleton was displayed at the Natural History Museum in Paris in 1872; it was the first fossil human to be presented to the public in a museum in France or possibly anywhere.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

The first report on the discovery and excavation of La Grotte de la Mouthe. This cave, found in 1894 and excavated by Rivière in 1895, was the fourth paleolithic cave art site discovered, after Altamira, Chabot and Pair-non-Pair, but it was probably the most instrumental in convincing the scientific establishment of the authenticity of cave paintings. Along with the paintings Rivière discovered one of the earliest carved stone oil lamps, dating from about 17,000 years before the present, proving that early man would have had the means to produce enough light to create the cave paintings deep within the interior of caves. The La Mouthe cave paintings, discovered in a cave that had been sealed for centuries, helped to prove the validity of the Altamira paintings and of Paleolithic cave art in general. The La Mouthe cave art consists of over 200 paintings and wall engravings of bison, horses, reindeer, cats and wolves, together with two human hands and a tectiform (rooflike) drawing.