[2] He worked as a curator at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Boulogne-sur-Mer, and published extensively on Late Jurassic dinosaurs and other vertebrates from the Boulonnais region of northern France.

[3] He made important contributions involving vertebrate palaeontology in Portugal, describing in 1897, Suchosaurus girardi from jaw fragments found in that country.

[2] From 1883 to 1896, he served as director of the station aquicole in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

He was a member of the Société géologique de France.

[4] In 1893 Philippe Thomas published the palaeontological results of the Tunisian Scientific Exploration Mission (1885–1886) in six installments plus an atlas, including the work of Victor-Auguste Gauthier (sea urchins), Arnould Locard (Mollusca), Auguste Péron (Brachiopods, Bryozoa and Pentacrinitess) and Henri Émile Sauvage (fish).