Claude Jourdan (18 June 1803, in Heyrieux – 12 February 1873, in Lyon) was a French zoologist and paleontologist.

From 1832 to 1869 he was director of the Musée d'histoire naturelle - Guimet in Lyons.

[1][2] As a zoologist, he conducted studies of living and extinct vertebrates, including Proboscidea (elephants and their ancestors).

In 1840–48 he is credited with uncovering 2000 fossils at various excavation sites in France.

He also classified the following mammal species: In 1839 Jules Bourcier named the rufous-shafted woodstar, Chaetocercus jourdanii, after him.