Jean-Jacques Petter (1927-2002) was a French primatologist known for his studies of lemurs and his conservation work in Madagascar. Petter's observational research of a variety of lemur species at several sites around Madagascar in the late 1950s was among the first studies of lemur ecology and social patterns. Petter was considered one of the leading pioneers in lemur research, publishing much of what he found in his book, Faune de Madagascar, in 1977. He and his wife, Arlette Petter-Rousseaux, were responsible for placing the hairy-eared dwarf lemur in its own genus, Allocebus, in 1967.