Florentino Ameghino

"Ameghino" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Ameghino (crater).

Florentino Ameghino
Florentino Ameghino (in the 1890s)
Born	September 18, 1854(1854-09-18) Luján
Died	August 6, 1911(1911-08-06) (aged 56) Buenos Aires
Nationality	Argentine
Fields	Paleontology
Influences	Charles Darwin

Homage to Florentino Ameghino, by the sculptor Erminio Blotta

Florentino Ameghino (September 18, 1854 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist.

Born in Luján, son of Italian immigrants, Ameghino was a self-taught naturalist, and focused his study on the lands of the southern Pampas. He formed one of the largest collections of fossils of the world at the time, which served him as base for numerous geological and paleontological studies. He also investigated the possible presence of prehistoric man in the Pampas and made several controversial claims about human origins in South America.

Ameghino was appointed professor of zoology at the University of Córdoba, subdirector of the La Plata Museum, and director of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum, in Buenos Aires.

He died from diabetes in Buenos Aires.

The crater Ameghino on the Moon is named in his honour. The Florentino Ameghino Partido and its county seat of Ameghino, situated in the north-west of Buenos Aires Province, are also named after him, as is the palaeontology journal Ameghiniana.

References

• Garate, Justo (1970). "Ameghino, Florentino". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 129–132. ISBN 0684101149. 
• Shampo, M A; Kyle R A (September 1987). "Argentinian paleontologist contributes to the understanding of humans and the environment". Mayo Clin. Proc. 62 (9): 855. PMID 3306184. 

The monumental contribution to the knowledge of the fossil mammals of Argentina, in 1889, won the bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. It also provided Phylogeny, classification principles based on natural law-change and mathematical proportions, which placed him among the few world figures paleontological approach of evolutionary biology. In the words of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Ameghino was then, a countryman of Mercedes here nobody knows, but that is admired by scholars worldwide. Close this stage of his life in 1906 with sedimentary formations of Cretaceous and Tertiary of Patagonia, a work of synthesis is not limited to descriptions, but it raises hypotheses about the evolution of various mammals and analyzes the different layers of the crust and their possible ages. Finally, between 1907 and 1911, returns to its original Ameghino dedication: fossil man, the descriptions of the first inhabitants, industries and cultures. Impress the volume reached its publications in the 57 years he lived. In a collection published as complete works, include 24 volumes of between 700 and 800 pages each, containing classifications, studies, comparisons and descriptions of more than 9000 extinct animals, many of them discovered by him. This was important in this catalog regarding the total number of extinct mammals known in the world, scientists from America and Europe traveled to Argentina to meet Ameghino collection, skeptical and curious, to surrender at last, given the evidence the truth and the spirit of the naturalist. The antiquity of man in the Silver and fossil mammals in South America, which was later translated into French, were published in 1878. Phylogenypublished in 1884,a theoretical work on developing its evolutionary conception of cutting net Lamarckian, and leads with pioneering intuition, the establishment of a zoological taxonomy of mathematical foundations. Shortly thereafter, he Department of Zoology, University of Cordoba. Was integrated into the National Academy of Sciences based in the city. In 1886, Francisco P. Moreno was named deputy director and secretary of the Museo de La Plata, assigning section of Paleontology, which Ameghino enriched his own collection (which sold to the provincial government). But it was little time in which these two scientists worked together. A year later appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences his magnum opus, comprising 1028 pages and an atlas: Contribution to the knowledge of the fossil mammals of the

External links

• Florentino Ameghino biography (Spanish)